
h HI ■ lili . 



n D. Day 



J 




Class. 
Book. 







COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



BAPTIZING 



Biblical 

ant) 
Classical 



BY 

CLINTON D. DAY 




CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS 



Copyright, 1907, by 
Jennings and Graham 



jas a »>« 



JAN -5 1916 



PREFACE. 



Deae Reader: To you I wish to address but 
few words by way of preface. Perhaps you will 
say that this book has faults — I believe it has. The 
fault I see is one that could not under the circum- 
stances be avoided. 

My effort has been, (1) To make everything 
clear; (2) To give authorities, so that unscrupulous 
critics would be unable to aver truthfully that the 
facts could not be produced; (3) To be fair. Doing 
this has caused an elaboration otherwise unneces- 
sary. 

I have sincerely tried to "approach the subject 
historically, with patient observation, with a su- 
preme sense of the sacredness of truth, and with a 
mind free from the bias of purely traditional 
opinions." 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter. Page. 

I. Abe Bapto and Baptidso Synonymous 

Terms? 7 

II. Bapto, the Word Rejected by the 

Seventy and by John the Baptist, 11 

III. Greek Antonyms of Bapto, - - 17 

IV. Dip, the Word Now Rejected by Dip- 

pers, 22 

V. Antonyms op Dip, - - - - 30 
VI. Contradictory Definitions of Words, 41 
VII. Christian Baptism by Dipping is Not 

Immersion, 50 

VIII. Mergo and Tingo in Latin Litera- 
ture, 60 

IX. Mergo and Tingo in Patristic Lit- 
erature, 70 

X. The Classic, Secular Meanings of 

Baptidso, 83 

XL The Theory of Dr. Conant Not Sus- 
tained by Classic Greek Litera- 
ture, - - - - - - - 99 

XII. Baptidso Mistranslated Dip and 

Duck, ------ 108 

XIII. Baptidso in Figurative Use, - - 124 

XIV. Baptidso Used of Intoxication, - 134 
XV. Does Baptidso Retain Its Classic Im- 
port in the Septuagint ? 141 

5 



6 Contents. 

Chapter. Page. 

XVI. The Usage of the Septuagint and 

THAT OF THE GrREEK CLASSICS CON- 
TRASTED, 151 

XVII. Naaman and Judith Were Baptized 
Because They ^Bathed Their 
Whole Flesh In Water," - - 156 
XVIII. Dipping Not Commanded in the Law, 167 
XIX. The Biblical Meanings of Baptidso, 175 
XX. Deep or Eunning Water — Which? -191 
XXI. Baptidso was Used of the Washings 
Performed by Naaman, Judith, and 
the Unclean, Because They Were 
Religious in Their Character, - 195 
XXII. The Eeason for the Selection of 

Baptidso, 209 



Appendix A. — 

Bapto in the Septuagint, - - - 218 

Appendix B. — 

Mergo, Virgil's ^Eneid, - 220 

Ovid's Metamorphoses, - - - 222 

Appendix C. — 

Baptidso Mistranslated Dip, - - - 224 

Appendix D.— 

Additional Examples of Baptidso in Fig- 
urative Use, Etc., - - - 226 



Chapter I. 

AEE BAPTO AND BAPTIDSO SYNONY- 
MOUS TERMS? 

Aptee a thorough, scrutiny of the words which 
are most prominent in the baptismal controversy, 
one is struck with astonishment as he views sev- 
eral glaring anomalies. First, we have been told 
that baptidso is a derivative of bapto> and that the 
derivative has the same meaning as the word from 
which it was derived. For instance, Professor 
Jewett has said: 

" The primary signification of /?a7rrw (bapto) is to 
dip, plunge, immerse ; /SaTTT^co (baptidso) signifies only 
to immerse, dip, or plunge ".—Baptism, pp. 16, 17. 

During the tedious progress of this controversy 
no one has told us why it was that the Greeks, hav- 
ing a word which was the adequate representative 
of a certain act, should have sought for another, 
and in the absence of testimony sufficient to prove 
that they did, I hold to the opinion so well expressed 
by Archbishop Trench, that "when one word had 
been found which was the adequate representative 

7 



8 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

of a feeling or an object, no further one would have 
been sought." (The Study of Words, p. 160.) 

If bapto and baptidso are synonymous terms, 
then we ought to find them occasionally used side 
by side as synonyms. We can go farther than this 
and assert, that if they were at on© time synony- 
mous and gradually underwent the process of de- 
synonymizing, then we ought to find traces of that 
process in those works which have come down to 
us. The facts are opposed to this, for while the 
word baptidso is not found in the works of Homer, 
the earliest of Greek writers, yet we find in a frag- 
ment dating back to B. C. 400 bapto and baptidso 
carefully differentiated and treated as antonyms: 

i. 

" You dipped /3a7rr€s me in plays; but I in waves of 
the sea baptizing PawTL&v, will destroy thee with streams 
more bitter." — Alcibiades, Epigram on the Comic Poet 
Eupolis. 

In this quotation the word bapto, true to its 
meaning, suggests no violence, while the word bap- 
tidso, equally true to its meaning, suggests a vio- 
lence which would end in death. The idea in brief 
is — You dipped me, but I will drown you! 

Truly the derivative retained, when used in its 



Eupolis, in a play called Baptoe (Dippers) had made an offensive 
allusion to the writer of the epigram. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 9 

literal sense, the idea of entrance into a fluid, but 
apart from this idea, baptidso conveyed meanings 
so different from those of bapto, that the words when 
used in proximity convey clearly contrasted or op- 
posite, and not similar ideas: 

ii. 

Directions for preparing a turnip salad, " Cut tur- 
nip roots . . . into thin slices ; and having dried them 
a little in the sun, sometimes just dip in boiling water 
lv £eoTco a7ro(3d7TT<Dv v'SaTL, and immerse e/x^SaTrrto-oi/ many 
in sharp brine; and at other times, put into a vessel 
white new wine with vinegar, half and half, and pick- 
ling them in it cover over with salt." — Nicander, On 
Husbandry, bk. II. 

in. 

Then dipping /?a^a§ (the blister-plaster) into oil of 
roses or Egyptian oil, apply it during the day ; and when 
it begins to sting, remove it, and again baptize (/3airTL£eiv) 
it into breast-milk and Egyptian ointment." — On Dis- 
eases of Women, bk. I. 

At first sight one may get the idea of two dip- 
pings, the one after the other, but this is not the 
fact. The blister-plaster, fresh and unused, will take 
up enough oil to answer the purpose if it is simply 
dipt; but after being used it will less readily take 
up the medicament, hence the advice "baptize," that 
is, steep, in breast-milk and Egyptian ointment. 

In this illustrative sentence the synonymous ele- 
ment common to both words, is the placing in oil 



10 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

and ointment, while the antonymous element in 
bapto is the taking out immediately after placing 
in, and the antonymous element in baptidso is the 
leaving for a long time in the ointment after plac- 
ing in. Baptidso was put into the sentence, not 
because it carried the idea of placing in } for a repe- 
tition of bapto could have served that purpose, but 
for the reason that it carried the idea of allowing 
the object to remain for some time in the ointment. 

The purpose or design of the writer must deter- 
mine every case, and if he used the word because 
of its antonymous element, then baptidso in all like 
instances must be classed as an antonym of bapto. 

As we go forward in this careful inquiry we 
shall see very clearly that the Greeks derived bap- 
tidso from the parent word, not because they wished 
to commit "the wanton extravagance of expending 
two or more signs on that which could adequately 
be set forth by one," but because they had "more 
things to designate and thoughts to utter" for which 
they required another word, and hence they made 
one for that purpose. 

As we proceed we shall find that these words 
have "each its own peculiar domain assigned to it, 
which it does not itself overstep, and upon which 
the other does not encroach." 



Chapter II. 

BAPTO, THE WOED EEJECTED BY THE 

SEVENTY AND BY JOHN 

THE BAPTIST. 

Modalists have from the first recognized the 

ability of bapto to express all that they affirm of 

their mode of baptism, and it is for this reason that 

they have been so positive in declaring to the world 

that: 

" It is only the primary signification of jSa-n-TO) to 
dip, plunge, immerse which modifies /3a7nrt£a>; there is 
a common province in which either of them may serve ;" 
and "either of them may signify to dip, generally " 
— Jewett, Mode and Subjects of Baptism, p. 16. 

Indeed, the continuous iteration of this has led 
to an incalculable amount of confusion, not only 
in the minds of young truth-seekers, but also of 
earnest men, who, ardently seeking for the light, 
w T ere walling to lay aside the bias received from 
mistaken teachers, and to come to a knowledge of 
the truth. Effusionists without one dissentient 
voice agree with dippers that bapto is adequate to 
affirm all that which baptism by dipping requires. 

11 



12 Baptizing— -Biblical and Classical. 

Definition of Bapto. 
As used by Greek writers, bapto meant a down- 
ward movement of a person or thing, without vio- 
lence, passing out of one element into another, to 
a limited extent, and returning without delay, bring- 
ing or not bringing back something additional. 

" I know of no instance, where bapto is used to put 
an object into a fluid to remain there permanently, 
or for an unlimited time. Nor do I know of any in- 
stance, where this word is used to draw up anything 
out of a liquid which it had not first put into it. Dr. 
Carson gives more than fifty quotations from Hippo- 
crates, in which, lie says there can be no doubt but 
we shall find the characteristic meaning of bapto. In 
all these cases there is the double movement of intrance 
and outrance. Whether this twofold movement be 
the result of the explicit demand of the word, or conse- 
quential on that which is immediately expressed, the 
result is the same; both find place in the character- 
istic use of the word." — Dale, Classic Baptism, pp. 
137-8. 

"BaTmo (bapto), primarily means to dip into any- 
thing liquid. For its secondary signification, /3a7r™ 
has to dye, a signification growing out of the primary 
idea inasmuch as dyeing was originally performed by 
dipping the thing to be dyed, into the coloring matter. 
Hence the word in the first instance, was used to de- 
signate dyeing by Dipping, and afterwards the sig- 
nification was extended so as to denote dyeing in any 
manner"— Jewett, Baptism, pp. 15, 16. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 13 



" The Egyptians consider the swine so polluted a 
beast that if any one in passing touch a swine, he will 
go away and dip himself l/3a^e going to the river (for 
that purpose)." — Herodotus, Euterpe, 47. 

ii. 
" One evening he took a chaplet of flowers from 
his head, dipped pdif/as it in the richest essences, and 
sent it from his table to Antalcidas.' — Plutarch, Ar- 
taxerxes, xxiii. 

in. 

" And as when a brazier dips /Sdirrrj a large adze or 
ax in cold water. 5 '— Homer, Odyssey, IX, 391-4. 

Bapto in the Septtjagint. 

iv. 
" Every vessel in which work should be done, shall 
be dipped /Jcu^o-crcu into water." — Lev. xi, 32. 

v. 
And he shall dip jSonf/et them and the living bird 
into the blood of the bird that was slain over living 
water." — Lev. xiv, 6, 51. 

VI. 

"And a clean man shall take hyssop, and dip /Jctyei 
it into the water." — JSTum. xix, 18. 

VII. 

" For if I should wash myself aTroXovarw/Mu with snow, 
and purge myself with pure hands, thou hadst thor- 
oughly dipped €/3a\j/as me in filth, and my garment had 
abhorred me." — Job ix, 30. 



14 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

Bapto and Embapto in the New Testament. 

viii. 
" He that dippeth in l^axpas his hand with me in 
the dish. 55 — Matt, xxvi, 23; Mark xiv, 20; John 
xiii, 26. 

IX. 

"That he may dip /3d\(/^ the tip of his finger in 
water. 55 — Luke xvi, 24. 

(For other instances consult Appendix A.) 

When writing of the word dip. Dr. Dale said: 
"The smallness of the objects is not a matter of 
accident. It is a necessity resulting from the nature 
of the act. Every object which is dipped must be 
brought out again from the element into which it has 
been introduced. This required that the introducing 
power should have full mastery over its object; but, in 
all ordinary cases, it is human agency by which the 
act is performed, and the power employed that of the 
hand or arm, consequently, the objects capable of be- 
ing thus dipped are limited, and must be of trivial size 
and weight as indicated by the examples adduced. 
Thus the nature of the objects gives testimony to the 
nature of the act. 55 — Classic Baptism, p. 184. 

The fact that bapto and dip so generally require 
a human actor or agent fits them to be the convey- 
ancers of a religious ordinance such as that prac- 
ticed by dippers. 

The anomalous thing is, that this word bapto, 
which without halting or equivocation has expressed 
the act of dipping to every Greek from the time of 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical 15 

Homer until now, was intentionally rejected by re- 
ligions translators and writers, and so fully, that it- 
can be said without qualification and truthfully: 

"The word bapto is not in this controversy. I 
here announce that the word bapto, with its inflec- 
tions, is not so much as once used in a noun or verb 
form, or in any form,, to designate Christian baptism. 
There is some reason, and the Divine Spirit had a 
reason for never using the word bapto, nor any of its 
cognates, as applied to the ordinance of baptisnic"™ 
Elder Wilkes in the Louisville Debate, pp. 416, 454. 

In his "Catechism on Baptism, " page 54, section 
95, Dr. J. M. Cramp has written: 

r 

"If the Savior had intended us to sprinkle^ the 
Greek word raino or rantizo would have been used ; if 
it had been His will that we should pour, there was 
cheo ready for the purpose ; but if He meant us to im- 
merse, baptizo was the proper word, and He employed 
it accordingly, because such was His design," 

Elder Wilkes has a more elaborate statement of 
this kind in "The Louisville Debate/' pages 416, 
417. 

We must not now tarry to notice the equivocal 
meaning of the word "immerse" as used by Dr. 
Cramp, and must certainly agree with him that, if 
the Savior had intended us to sprinkle only, the 
Greek words rhaino or rhantidso would have been 
used; if it had been His will that we should pour 



16 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

only, there was cheo ready for the purpose, but if 
justice is done to the facts we must go farther and 
say, If He meant for us to dip only, then Bapto 
was the proper word. 

Herein lies the anomaly, that the word which 
describes the placing of things and persons in a 
fluid and insists upon their immediate withdrawal 
was rejected, while the word which describes the 
placing of things and persons in a fluid and insists 
upon their remaining therein for some time — the 
word used by Greeks of drowning — was chosen, ac- 
cording to the opinion of dippers, to indicate and 
make obligatory Christian baptism by dipping. 

If modalists will solve the following problem it 
will throw much light upon the controversy concern- 
ing the mode of baptism, and also bring us to a 
knowledge of "the reason which the Divine Spirit had 
for never using the word bapto nor any of its cognates, 
as applied to the ordinance of baptism :" If dipping 
is the one Divinely ordained mode of baptism, 
then for what reason was not Bapto chosen 
by the Seventy and John the Baptist 1 to des- 
ignate the religious water rites of Judaism 
and Christianity? 



i If the reader wishes, he may look back to the Aramaic, the 
language spoken by our Savior and His servant John. All we are 
now concerned to know is that they spoke a word which was an 
equivalent of Greek /3a7m£w. 



Chapter III. 
GEEEK ANTONYMS OF BAPTO. 

The three principal attributes required by the 
word which describes baptism by dipping are: (1) It 
must contain no suggestion of violence or danger; 
(2) It must demand return from the water without 
delay; (3) It must not permit of limitless extent. 
If (a) violence were connected with the act of intus- 
position; (6) if there was not immediate return; 
(c) if the object was sunk to depths which prevented 
rapid withdrawal, or (d) if withdrawal was not in- 
tended, and (e) impossible, then the Greeks used 
other words, e. g. , fkmritp, baptidso ; &w 9 duo ; iK/3d\\o) 9 
ekballo ; ififidWw, emballo ; Kara/3aAAa>, kataballo ; Kara- 
hvia, kataduo ; Kara7rovTt£a), katapontidso ; and pwrrcu, 
rhipto. 

(a) Violence connected with the act of intus- 
position. 

1 

"The party of horsemen . . . called to the 
ship's crew, either to put ashore immediately, or to 
throw out €Kj8aXwTas Marius overboard." — Plutarch, 
Caius Marius, xxxvii. 

2 17 



18 Baptizing— Biblical and Classical. 

2 

"And sustained the attack of the horsemen . . . 
who pushed them down KaTeftaXov into the current." — 
Josephus* Wars, bk. IV. ch. vii* 5. 

3 

€i The horse and the rider he has cast ippvtyw into 
the sea." — Exod. xv, 21; Luke xvii, 2. 

4 (IV) 

" Some of the vessels thrusting down under a 
weight firmly fixed above they sunk down kolt&vov into 
the deep; and others* with iron hands or beaks like 
those of cranes, hauling up by the prow till they were 
erect on the stern* they sunk e/3a7m£ov (baptized). — 
Plutarch, Marcellus* xv. 



"The people put Aristomachus to the torture at 
Oenchreae, and afterwards drowned Karc7rdvrto-av him in 
the sea." — Aratus, xliv. 

(&) Not immediate return. 

6 

"They ran down therefore to the sea e . c and 
plunging KaTa(3a\6vTes themselves, swam towards the 
ships," — Caius Marius, xxxvii. 

7 
" At the same time he throws ififidWa himself into 
the stream with thirteen troops of horse ; and advanced 
in the face of the enemy's arrows."— Alexander* xvi. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 19 

8 
"Its waters bear up the heaviest things that are 
thrown pL<j>evTQ)v into it; nor is it easy for any one to 
make things sink down KaraSvvcu to the bottom . . . 
When Vespasian went to see it, he commanded that 
some who could not swim should have their hands tied 
behind them, and be thrown pi^rjvai into the deep."— 
Josephus, Wars, bk. IV. ch. viii, 4. 

9 
"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that 
was cast fiXrjOuar) into the sea."— Matt, xiii, 47 ; xvii, 27 ; 
John xxi, 6, 7. 

10 (V) 

" And there is a fountain of gold there. Therefore 
they sink (3a7TT%ov<n (baptize) into the water a pole 
smeared with pitch, and open the barriers of the stream. 
And the pole is to the gold what the hook is to the 
fish, for it catches it, and the pitch is a bait for the 
prey." — Achilles Tatius, Clitophon and Leucippe, bk. 
II, ch. xiv. 

11 

In the Odyssey (bk. IV. 568) it is said of Proteus, 
the immortal servant of Neptune, that "having spoken 
he sunk eSiWro beneath the billowy sea." 

(c) Sunk to depths which prevented rapid with- 
drawal; (d) Withdrawal not intended. 

12 
"He will sink Karahvau our iniquities, and they 
shall be cast from us anoppi^rjcrovTai into the depths of 
the sea." — Septuagint, Micah vii, 19. 



20 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

13 
" And Jonah said to them, Take me up and cast 
ifi/SaXere me into the sea. So they took Jonah and cast 
him out iijifiakov avrbv."— Jonah, i, 12, 15; Ex. xv, 25; 
4 Kings iv, 41; vi, 6. 

14 (VI) 

" And he persuaded them to cast him out iK@d\\av 
into the sea . . . Now at the first they durst not do 
so, esteeming it a wicked thing to cast out tKptyai a man 
that was a stranger; but at last when the ship was just 
going to be drowned jSairTL&crOai (baptized) . . . they 
cast pUrovcrtv him into the sea." — Josephus, Ant. bk. 
IX, ch. x, 2 ; Jonah ii, 4. 

15 

" It were better for him if a great millstone were 
hanged about his neck and he were cast fiipXrjTat into 
the sea." — Mk. ix, 42; Acts xxvii, 38; Kev. viii, 8; 
xviii, 21. 

16 (VII) 

"And the dolphin, angry at such a falsehood, 
drowning /faimgcw (baptizing) killed him." — ^Esopic 
Fable, Ape and the Dolphin. 

(e) Withdrawal impossible. 

17 
" And Elisha went out to the spring of waters, and 
cast tpptij/ev salt therein." — 4 Kings ii, 21. 2 



2 In the Septuagint, First and Second Samuel, and First and 
Second Kings come under the head of First, Second, Third and 
Fourth of Kings. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 21 

18 
u The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked 
from the righteous, and shall cast fiaXovcnv them into 
the furnace of fire." — Matt, xiii, 50. 

19 (VIII) 

"It is related of a ship which had been seized by 
pirates who were unable to manage it in a storm, that, 
( Already sinking /JaTrr^o/xiiw (baptizing) and wanting 
little of being sunk KaraSwou some of the pirates at first 
attempted to leave, and get aboard of their own bark.' " 
— Heliodorus, Ethiopics, bk. V, 



Chapter IV. 

DIP, THE WORD NOW REJECTED BY 
DIPPERS. 

Foe more than two hundred years modalists were 
pleased to use the English equivalent of bapto in 
preference to all other words when speaking and 
writing of their mode of baptism. They did so 
thinking that bapto and baptidso were synonymous 
terms; e. g.: 

" It is absurd to speak of baptizing by sprinkling, 
because baptizing is dipping. The word baptize nec- 
essarily includes in its signification dipping, and that 
Christ by commanding to baptize has commanded to 
dip only. The primary meaning is simply to dip. I 
do not remember one passage where all other senses 
are not excluded besides dipping."— Dr. Gale, Works, 
pp. 94-96. London, 1711. 

" I do not, indeed, recollect so much as one learned 
writer, in the whole course of my reading, who denies 
that the primary sense of the term is to dip." — Abra- 
ham Booth, Works, p. 125. London, 1711. 

"The proof is equally strong with reference to 
/3a7TT%(s). My position is that it always signifies dip; 

22 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 23 

never expressing anything but mode." — Alex. Carson, 
LL. D., Works, p. 55. Philadelphia, 1853. 

" In all translations of classical works /3a7rrt£a> is 
rendered dip, immerse." — R. Fuller, D. D., Works, p. 
10. Charleston, 1859. 

But when in 1861 Dr. T. J. Conant published 
his "Appendix to the Revised Version of the Gospel 
of Matthew" they met with a surprise. That able 
scholar presented them with no less than one hun- 
dred and eighty instances of baptidso as found in 
Greek literature, in both literal and figurative senses. 
This includes "Examples" Nos. 1 to 175; the ad- 
ditional number is accounted for in that in a few 
"examples" the word is repeated. 

This word which "in the whole history of the 
Greek language has but one meaning," which "sig- 
nifies to dip or immerse, and never has any other 
meaning," 1 was translated by Conant dip, imbathe, 
immerge, immerse, overwhelm, plunge in, submerge, 
and whelm. The word which Jewett and others so 
confidently affirmed meant to dip was translated by 
their foremost scholar one hundred and seventy times 
in a total of one hundred and eighty by other words ; 
6. g., whelm, 55; submerge, 25; plunge in, 17; over- 
whelm, 10 ; immerse, 45 ; immerge, 15 ; imbathe, 2 ; 
and baptize, 1. 

l Jewett, Mode and Subjects of Baptism, pp, 16, 17. 



24 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

The word which, according to Elder Wilkes 
"never for a thousand years before the Christian era 
failed to indicate the mode" 2 is translated by the 
non-modal words imbathe, immerge, immerse, while 
in less than six per centum it is translated by the 
modal word dip. 

After the thorough investigation made by this 
very able investigator, the position so long main- 
tained, namely, that "the word baptism will not 
express any other thing besides dipping" 3 was aban- 
doned, and the admission made — in actions, not in 
words — that the word dip is not the equivalent of 
baptidso. 

We are now face to face with the remarkable 
historic fact, that when selecting the word which 
was to be used of sacred water rites, the Seventy 
rejected fiaTr™ (bapto) because of its unfitness to 
convey the ideas intended, and selected in preference 
to all other words Pam-lfa (baptidso). Equally pe- 
culiar is the fact that Anglo-Saxon modalists, after 
having used dip for over two hundred years as the 
word which best described their mode of baptism, 
and most fully — as they thought — translated bap- 
tidso, have discarded its use, and have taken into 



2 The Louisville Debate, p. 417. 
8 Baptist Magazine, 1842, p. 472. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 25 

their employ, as a more trustworthy servant, the 
equivocal word immerse. 

It seems very strange that scholarly men should 
have failed to see that if an univocal word such as 
dip is did not suit their purpose, then how could 
another word do the work and express the ideas 
which they had in mind, unless it was equivocal in 
its nature, or was forced into an equivocal use. We 
can but wonder that it never occurred to some 
earnest truth-seeker of that school to ask, "If dip 
can not translate baptidso, and immerse can, what 
is that meaning contained in immerse which is not 
found in dip, the want of which has led to its rejec- 
tion by dippers, and renders it incapable of translat- 
ing baptidso ?" 

If dip can not translate baptidso — and it can not, 
for the ten instances in which Conant has rendered 
baptidso by dip must be translated by other words — 
then immerse must be differentiated from dip in 
some very important sense, since it can do what dip 
can not do. Since dip describes the mode of bap- 
tism practiced by dippers, but is incapable of trans- 
lating baptidso, then the natural inference is, that 
immerse while capable of translating baptidso, is 
not fitted to describe baptism by dipping, if used in 
an univocal sense. 



26 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

Definition 1. 
DIP. 

By the word dip English writers convey 
the idea of a downward movement of a person 
or thing, without violence, passing out of one 
environment into another to a limited extent, 
and returning without delay, with or without 
additions to its bulk. 

Dip, unlike baptidso and mergo, does not require 
that the whole of the object shall be intusposed, 
hence it is used when either the whole or a part is 
put in and lifted out of a fluid or other environ- 
ment. 

1 

" In baptism the child's head and breast was to be 
crossed . . . children were to be thrice dipped, 
or, in case of weakness, water was to be sprinkled on 
their faces, and then they were to be anointed." — Fox's 
Book of Martyrs, p. 334. 

2 
"Mr. Lincoln dipped his pen in the ink, and then 
holding it a moment above the paper seemed to hesi- 
tate."— McClure's Magazine, April 1899, p. 526. 

3 

" They discovered that the sail was working loose 
from the end of the boom, beginning to belly out like 
a balloon, dipping into the water with each roll of the 
ship."— New Voice, July 1, 1899, On Board the Glo. 
with Wainwright. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 27 

DIP, WHEN SOMETHING ADDITIONAL IS BROUGHT 

BACK. 

4 

1 ' The rim of this wheel is large, hollow and divided 
into compartments answering the place of buckets. A 
hole near the top of each bucket allows it to fill, as that 
part of the rim, in revolving, dips under the water." 
— Thomson, Land and the Book, vol. II, p. 278. 

5 
"The Newfoundland dipped the poodle into the 
dirty water twice, then deposited the mud -bedraggled 
and humiliated dog upon the side-walk." — -Our Dumb 
Animals, May 1900, p. 150. 

6 
"Who can call him friend, that dips in the same 
dish?" — Timon of Athens, Act iii, sc. 2. 

Definition 2. 
By the word dip English writers convey 
the idea of the fall and rise of vessels when 
at sea ? and also the raising and lowering of 

FLAGS. 

7 
" One moment the keels of the bullies were seen; 
the next their hulls would dip in the trough and 
naught but the sails would be visible."— The Class- 
mate, Aug. 19, 1899. 

8 

"We have been told that Admiral Dewey had 
dipped colors to the Filipino flag." — Oregon Election. 



28 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

Remarks of Hon. T. H. Carter in XL S. Sen., June, 
1900. 

Definition 3. 

By the wobd dip we convey the idea of 
being for a short time engaged in an occupa- 
tion i the reading of a few sentences from dif- 
ferent parts of a book; in other words, the 
being in and out of an occupation ; having the 
eyes in and out of a book j taking a brief view 
of anything. 

9 

" Mr. Spurgeon handed the young lady a book, 
into which he had been occasionally dipping, and 
pointing to some particular lines, said, ' What do you 
think of the poet's suggestion in these verses?' "— 
Youth's Companion, Nov. 24, 1898, Spurgeon 's Love- 
Making. 

10 

" The nation's chief with frowning brow, sat lost in 
anxious thought, 
He had dipped into the future, with pain and 
anguish fraught/' 
—Mrs. Greenleaf, Storming of Stony Point. 

Definition 5. 

TO DYE OR STAIN. 

11 

" Wherefore are men canonized who dip their 

hands in the blood of Saracens?"-— Scott, Ivanhoe, 

ch. xxx, p. 212. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 29 

12 
"And rested not till there was not a man left 
either of those who dipped their hands in his blood or 
of those who gave their sanction to the deed." — 
Langhorne's Plutarch/s Lives, vol. Ill, p. 371. 

Notice how the idea of a dipping to impart color 

is beautifully expressed in the quotations which 

follow : 

"The sacred Lamp of Day 
Now dipt in western clouds his parting ray." 
— Falconer, The Shipwreck, canto II. 

" Love lights her smile— in Joy's bright nectar dips 
The flamy rose, and plants it on her lips." 

— Coleridge's Miscellaneous Poems. 



Chapter Y. 

ANTONYMS OF DIP. 

It is to be noted that if violence, depth or ex- 
tent, long time, and the intention not to withdraw 
immediately enter into this class of transactions, 
then other words are used: 

Violence. 
1 
"The Judge's horse being found, it was concluded 
he had throivn his rider into the sea ; his friends went 
into mourning, and a successor was appointed to his 
office."— Chambers's Mis., vol. VII, Tales of Tweed- 
dale, p. 14. 

2 

"As he dragged her over the Elbe bridge, she 
begged leave to have the use of her hands . . . and 
at that instant plunged herself into the river and there 
expired. Twenty young girls who were assembled at 
the house rushed out, and, embracing each other, 
threw themselves into the river." — Chambers's Mis., 
vol. XV, Gus. Adol. and Thirty Years' War, p. 14. 

Depth and Extent. 
3 
u Precipitating himself head first, he plunged into 
the sea. ... He sunk deep in the water, touched 

30 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 31 

the bottom . . . then struck out to regain the 
surface." — Hugo, Toilers of the Sea, bk. VI, chap, 
vi, p. 161. 

4 

"His eyes roved from face to face of his com- 
panions with a wistful expression or longing for life, 
or shrinking from the terrible unknown into which he 
was plunging." — Prime, Boat Life in Egypt, p. 204. 

Long Time. 

5 

" Intent I stood 
To gaze, and in the marsh sunk I descried 
A miry tribe." 

" Onward we moved, 
The faithful escort by our side, along 
The border of the crimson-seething flood 
Whence from those steeped within loud shrieks 
arose." 

"Some there I marked, as high as to the brow 
Immersed." — Dante, Divine Comedy, Hell, 
Can. VII, 113; XII, 101-3. 

Intention not to Withdraw Immediately. 

6 
" The joint and adjacent limb should be plunged 
into the water, which may be kept hot by the addition 
of small quantities from another vessel kept over the 
fire. This treatment must be continued for hours 
if necessary." — Youth's Companion, Oct. 17, 1901, 
"Sprain," p. 512. 



32 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 



" Par* Or to drotvn my clothes, and say I was 
stripped."— All 's Well That Ends Well, Act IV, sc. 1. 

8 

"In each of these royal cells they placed an egg 
. . and buried it in a mass of jelly." — Ladies' 
Home Journal, May, 1901. 

Intention not to Withdraw. 

9 

" Seutonius tells us that Nero commanded his son- 
in-law, Bufinus Crispinus, the son of Poppsea, a child, 
to be thrown into the sea." — Langhorne's Plutarch's 
Lives, vol. Ill, p. 406, note. 

10 

" But now it has drifted from me 
It lies buried in the sea." 

— Longfellow, The Bridge. 

PLUNGE. 

Every careful reader of the preceding pages has 
observed that Professor Jewett and the dictionaries 
treat the word plunge as a synonym of dip. It is 
because of this idea, only too prevalent, that I wish 
to place before you a collation of plunge. 

Plunge is unlike dip, in that it — 

1. Has no time limit. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 33 

1 

" What if the breath that kindled those grim fires 
Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage 
And plunge us in the flames?" 

-Milton, Paradise Lost, bk. II, line 172. 

2 
" It was Spain which was soon to plunge Germany 
into the chaos of the Thirty Years War." — Green, 
Short Hist, of Eng. People, ch. vii, p. 411. 

2. Is not limited to mode or manner. 

3 

"The swallow which plunges with such reckless 
impulse through the air, will nevertheless seize a small 
insect as it dashes along, with almost unerring cer- 
tainty." — The Popular Educator, vol. I, p, 66. 

3. Is not limited in its extent. 

4 
" Moses remonstrated . . . but it was of no 
avail, and when he c cried unto the Lord ' the order 
was given to plunge into the sea and cross it." — Daw- 
son, Egypt and Syria, p. 62. 

4. Does not require the return of that which is 

plunged. 

5 
" At the ford he mentions there is an immense 
boiling hot spring, which coming out at the base of a 
mountain, plunges over terraces into the river." — Eev. 
E. E. Tarbill, Christian Advocate, Sept. 22, 1898. 
3 



34 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

Plunge conveys the following meanings, all of 
which are unlike those of dip : 

(a) To dive; to leap into water. 

6 
" There are two moments in a diver's life- 
One, when a beggar, he prepares to plunge. 
One when a prince, he rises with his pearl— 

Festus, I plunge." 

— Browning. 

" And with his harness on his back, plunged head- 
long in the tide." — Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Eome. 

(b) To go deep into; advance a long journey 

into. - 

o 

"If Mr. McGinty were to seek the bottom of the 
sea ... he would have to dive a long way in cer- 
tain parts of the Pacific. ... At one point, a deep 
pit was encountered which plunges to the awful depth 
of six miles." — Central Christian Advocate, Apr. 3, 
1901, p. 426. 

9 

"This route presents no great stretch of waterless 
desert, into which an individual would be afraid to 
plunge." — Eawlinson, Isaac and Jacob, p. 97. 

(c) To sink quickly; to rush forward; w,ove 
horizontally with extreme rapidity. 

10 
"A few moments afterwards the smack plunged 
forward into the trough of the sea and forever disap- 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 35 

peared from mortal view." — Family Herald (Montreal), 
Aug. 29, 1900, p. 14. 

11 

4 'Linking their bridles together, the little com- 
pany plunged into the thick of the combat." — Green, 
Short Hist. Eng. People, ch, v, p. 227. 

12 
"The Phantom brought up with a plunge on a 
sand-bank." — Prime, Boat Life in Egypt, p 337. 

(d) To leap from a great height. 

13 

" Wherefore do I pause? 
I feel the impulse — yet I do not plunge" 

— Byron, Manfred, Act I, sc. 2. 

14 
"One foot nearer and I plunge myself from the 
precipice."— Scott, Ivanhoe, p. 162. 

(e) To recklessly place in positions of disaster 

and difficulty. 

15 
" England was plunging into a series of bitter 
humiliations and losses abroad."— Green, Short Hist. 
Eng. People, pp. 628, 412. 

16 

"A friend of mine 
Hath stept into the law, which is past depth 
To those that without heed do plunge into it." 
— Timon of Athens, Act III, sc. 5; Act. IV, sc. 3. 



36 Baptizing — Biblical aid Classical. 

(f) To be powerfully influenced; absorbed; im- 
mersed. 

17 

"She had first to remove her father, who was 
plunged in a state of deplorable intoxication." — Cham- 
bers's Mis. vol. XV, p. 7. 

18 
" Mess Lethierry, plunged once more in his over- 
whelming absorption, no longer listened." — Hugo, 
Toilers of the sea, p. 177. 

Deceptive Uses of Plunge. 
Occasionally we find a very rapid writer or a 
fluent speaker throwing words together, and never 
questioning himself as to their synonymity: 

" The living bird is dipped, head, feet, wings, and 
feathers — plunged overhead — into the blood-dyed 
water." — Thos. Guthrie, D. D., Gospel in Ezekiel, 
p. 222. 

One reason for the use of bapto by the Seventy 
(see quotation No. V, under "Bapto in the Septua- 
gint," p. 13) was to convey the idea of immediate 
lifting, and that no violence was to be done to the 
living bird, for after the ceremony it was to be let 
loose in the open field. (Lev. xiv, 7, 53.) The em- 
phasis which Dr. Guthrie sought to give by means 
of the word plunge could have been secured by a 
repetition of dip. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 37 

As I look at this I am reminded of the hero of 
that ancient Hebrew sacrificial episode (Gen. xxii, 
6-12), who, when in later life his eyes were dim 
with age, and when expecting his elder son with the 
savory venison he so much enjoyed, said to the sup- 
planter, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands 
are the hands of Esau." The meaning is that of 
the word dip, but the letters are those of the word 
plunge. As there was something about Jacob which 
resembled Esau (Gen. xxvii, 11, 12, 16, 21-23), so 
that Isaac in his blindness supposed it was Esau, 
so also there must be some one or more features, 
common to both dip and plunge, which have led to 
the one being taken for the other. This is true; 
plunge is like dip, in that it often affirms entrance 
into water, and with haste. 

SINK. 

" Sink. I, transitive. To submerge in some body 
of slight resistance, especially water, to put under 
water; cause to descend below the surface; as, to sink 
a shaft or well. 3. To drive down or fix in place by 
excavating or boring; as, to sink a post or tube well. 
4. To cause to descend., 

II, intransitive. To descend by force of gravity 
through a lighter medium: opposed to float or swim: 
as, the ship sunk/' — The Standard Dictionary. 



38 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

In addition to the definition just given, it should 
be noted that sink is unlike dip, in that it— 

1. Has no time limit. 

1 

44 It was then sunk in the pool of Bethesda. 
Within that pool it rested from the time of Solomon 
until David's greater Son arose."— Epworth Herald, 
Apr. 9, 1898, Legend of the Cross. 

2. Is not limited in extent. 

2 
44 The little creatures which formed the shells do 
not live here; they dwell in calm zones of water far 
above. When the conscious animal ceases to live, its 
tiny house sinks down (two miles, see p. 58) into this 
dark world." — Winchell, Walks and Talks in Geolog- 
ical Field, p. 59. 

3. Does not require return of sunken thing. 

3 

44 x Or forever sunk 
Under yon boiling ocean, wrapped in chains 
There to converse with everlasting groans." 
—Milton, Paradise Lost, bk. II, line 182. 

4. 76' used equally of descent into earth and 
ivater. 

4 
44 A long box sunk into the sides of a gully was his 
home."— Everybody's Magazine, July 1901, p. 86. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 39 

5. Is used of deep earth and deep sea transac- 
tions, as also of those in shallows and surfaces. 

5 
" So that to make camp it was necessary to pack 
outfit and provisions on the men's backs, sinking at 
every step knee deep in the thick blue mud/' — Scrib- 
ner's Magazine, July 1901, p. 86. 

6 
" Bir Eyub, or the Well of Job ... is a shaft 
sunk through the limestone rock to a depth of 125 
feet." — Stewart, The L,and of Israel, p. 214. 

Sink tells only of entrance and is silent as to 
exit, while the words bapto, tingo and dip describe 
both entrance and exit. Sink and plunge must be 
accompanied by assistant or complementary words 
if exit is to be indicated ; e. g., 

" In with the river sunk, and with it rose 
Satan." — Paradise Lost, bk. IX, line 74. 

"So bidding good-bye to their companion . . . 
they once more plunged into the recesses of the swamp. 
. . . Finally emerging from the swamp they entered a 
cornfield." — Sword and Pen, pp. 249, 250. 

"If you plunge a hand into the water, you with- 
draw it clothed with flame." — Hugo, Toilers of the 
Sea, p. 244. 

While sink is like baptidso, in that it is often 
employed of transactions requiring a long time for 



40 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

their completion, yet it is unlike its Greek compeer, 
in that it does at times accommodate itself to describe 
momentary actions; e. g., 

" He jumped into a boat . . . pushed out to 
sea, rose and sunk, and rose again on rolling waves." 
— Hugo, Toilers of the Sea, p. 37. 

" And feel at every step 
Our foot half sunk in hillocks green and soft 
Raised by the mole.' 9 

— Cowper, The Task, bk. I, The Sofa. 



Chapter VI. 

CONTKADICTOEY DEFINITIONS OF 
WORDS. 

Faulty uses of words are in many instances the 
result of contradictory definitions, Webster defined 
dip as follows, "to plunge or immerse;" hence we 
need not wonder if occasionally we find a writer 
qualifying his words where qualifying terms are 
not necessary, as for instance, "a temporary dip," 
"a sudden plunge:" 

" While one lady was being lifted in the chair, the 
parrot called out * Let go.' The seaman thinking it 
was the boatswain's command, did let go ; and the lady 
had an unexpected though temporary dip in the sea." 
— Chambers's Mis. vol. II, Earl of Dundonald, p. 3. 

"We felt sure that the sudden plunge would have 
brought him " (the man who in a drunken fit had 
thrown himself overboard) "to his senses, and that he 
would be very glad to be picked up and brought on 
board."— Christian Endeavor World, Jan. 18, 1900, 
p. 333. 

Fortunately Webster proceeds to contradict him- 
self, and concludes his definition by saying "to in- 

41 



42 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

sert in a fluid and withdraw again ; especially to put 
for a moment into any liquid." 

"Dip, noun. The action of dipping or of plung- 
ing for a moment into a liquid; The dip of oars in 
unison/ " 

Another dictionary of international reputation 
defines dip, "To immerse for a short time in any 
liquid." This is equal to saying that the lesser can 
contain the greater; as well say — put a week for a 
short time in a day. Directly a man "comes of age" 
that moment he ceases to be a minor. The second 
of time during which an object remains in a fluid 
beyond that allowed by the word dip, it is immersed ; 
hence to speak of an object merely dipped, as im- 
mersed, is a misuse of terms. The word immerse 
has been associated with the intusposition of persons 
and things, when the time occupied was from five 
minutes to a millennium, while dip has been associ- 
ated with momentary actions. The attempt to de- 
fine a word by means of its autonym must result in 
perplexity. 

"4. To immerse or sink without covering 
wholly." 

Immerse conveys the idea of total covering. It 
is for this reason that it translates classic baptidso 
so well; hence if we turn this fourth definition into 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 43 

plain Engish it will read as follows: To fully cover 
or sink without covering wholly. 

" Archimedean-Screw, a spiral conduit about an 
inclined axis. When the lower end is dipped into a 
liquid, the liquid can be raised by the rotation of the 
screw." — The Standard Dictionary, p. 109. 

That a great dictionary finds space for an error 
so unaccountable is strange. The proper word in 
this connection is one which permits of total cover- 
ing for a long time, hence best usage is represented 
by other words : 

" The screw of Archimedes may be briefly described 
as a long spiral with its lower extremity immersed in 
the water, which rising along the channels by the rev- 
olution of the machine on its axis, is discharged at the 
upper extremity." 

"Which Sir Eobert Moray said < might be done 
by a cane so contrived that it should take in more and 
more water, according as it should be sunk deeper 
and deeper into it.'"— Timbs, Stories of Inventors, pp. 
3, 32. 

A Few So-called Synonyms Critically Exam- 
ined. 

" It may be remarked that it is a logical defect in 
a language to possess a great number of synonymous 
terms, since we acquire the habit of using them indiff- 
erently without being sure that they are not subject to 



44 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

ambiguities and obscure differences of meaning. " — 
Jevons, Logic, p. 50. 

In a popular dictionary, under the word Im- 
merse, are certain words which are called synonyms : 

" Bury, dip, douse, duck, immerge, plunge, sink, 
submerge. Dip is Saxon, while immerse is Latin for 
the same initial act: dip is accordingly the more pop- 
ular and common-place, immerse the more elegant and 
dignified expression in many cases. To speak of bap- 
tism by immersing as dipping now seems rude, though 
entirely proper and usual in early English. Baptists 
now universally use the word immerse. To dip and to 
immerse alike signify to bury or submerge some object 
in a liquid, but dip implies that the object dipped is at 
once removed from the liquid, while immerse is wholly 
silent as to the removal. Immerse also suggests more 
absolute completeness of the action; one may dip his 
sleeve or dip a sponge in a liquid if he but touches the 
edge ; if he immerses it, he completely sinks it under, 
and covers it with the liquid. Submerge implies that 
the object can not readily be removed if at all; as, a 
submerged wreck. To plunge is to immerse suddenly 
and violently, for which douse and duck are colloquial 
terms. Dip is used, also unlike the other words, to 
denote the putting of a hollow vessel into liquid in 
order to remove a portion of it ; in this sense we say, 
dip up, dip out" 

As I look over this strange mixture of truth and 
error I can not forbear saying with Hooker: "The 
mixture of those things by speech, which by 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 45 

nature are divided, is the mother of all 
error/' and with Shakespeare's clown, "Words are 

GROWN SO FALSE, I AM LOATH TO PROVE REASON 

with them." The word immerse is not only 
"silent as to removal/' but never demands it. Douse 
demands removal and is modal, since it requires a 
quick downward movement into a fluid; e. g., 

" He slammed the iron door shut, tossed down his 
shovel, cast off his apron, doused his head in a bucket 
of water, sputtered and rubbed his face dry, saying, 
1 Now you would n't know me.' " — Youth's Companion, 
Dec. 21, 1899. 

Duck goes a step farther aw T ay from immerse 
than does douse, in that it does not always demand 
entrance into a fluid element; e. g., 

1 

" Colonel Liscum guided his men, walked upright 
up and down the line, not even ducking his head while 
the bullets fell around." — St. Joseph Daily News, July 
21, 1900. 

2 

" And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas 
Olympus high, and duck again as low 
As hell's from heaven." 

— Othello, act II, sc. 1. 

King Lear, act II, sc. 2, line 100. 

Duck also demands removal: 

" They were ducked \ they were stoned, they were 



46 Baptizing—Biblical and Classical. 

smothered with filth."— Green, Short Hist. English 
People, ch. x. p. 737. 

" The men ducked the women, in the Jordan Kiver, 
somewhat as the farmers do their sheep* 5 ' — Thomson, 
The Land and the Book, vol. II, p. 445. 

"Dip is Saxon, while immerse is Latin for the 

SAME INITIAL ACT." 

(1) Downward movement, (2) into a fluid, is 
as far as dip will go with immerse; but Ave must 
remember that while quite often immersion is ob- 
tained by a downward movement, yet the word 
makes no demand thereof. The requirements of 
immerse are met by any mode, as a brief inspection 
of the quotations under Immerse will prove. 

Does the possession of two similar traits of char- 
acter prove that two persons are of the same family ? 
If having two points of likeness will make two 
words synonymous, what will the possession of five 
points of unlikeness make them? Dip is a pro- 
nounced antonym of immerse. 

" To dip and to immerse alike signify to bury, or 
submerge some object in a liquid; but dip implies that 
the object dipped is at once removed from the liquid." 

This is equivalent to saying, Dip signifies to 
bury in a liquid when the object is not buried. It 
matters not in what element things are buried, but 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 47 

it is required of the thing buried that it remain for 
some time, and in many instances permanently, in 

that element; e. g., 

1 

" These letters . . . have never been reprinted, 
but lie buried in the old numbers of a magazine." — 
Trench, Study of Words, Lect. V, p. 164. 

2 

" This shot may still be seen buried in the gable of 
an old brick house," — Hugo, Les Miserables, ch. 
lxxviii, p. 158, 

3 

" But he refused the same indulgence to his miser- 
able captives, whose only refuge from the scorching 
rays of the sun was by burying themselves up to the 
neck in the burning sand." — Chambers's Mis., vol. V, 
Mutiny of the Bounty, p. 28. 

4 

" In this way did He eliminate the divine principle 
of an inward life, from that mass of sensual observ- 
ances which had so long buried it from human sight." 

— Wagstaff, Hist, of the Friends, Intro, p. 17. 

The reader will at once perceive that just now 
we are not scrutinizing the word hide, which is 
often erroneously spelt b-u-r-y, a very peculiar pro- 
ceeding, originating, it is to be supposed, in the fact 
that things buried are hidden; e. g., 



48 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

u He bowed his head, buried (hid) his face in his 
hands and sat motionless. "' — Central Christian Advo- 
cate, July 6, 1904. 

Some writers affirm that dogs bury their fangs 
in flesh, but this is mere rhetoric — sink is the word 
which philology recognizes as the proper one to be 
used in such connections. That wretched interpre- 
tation of Bom. vi, 4, and Col. ii, 12, which affirms 
that the momentary entrance into and withdrawal 
from water of a living being is a burial, is an insult 
to human intelligence, and an offense against the 
laws of typology and language. 

" To dip and to immerse alike signify to bury or 
submerge some object in a liquid. Submerge implies 
that the object can not readily be removed if at all/ 5 

If dip signifies "to bury or submerge," then dip 
implies that the object can not readily be removed, 
if at all. This does not accord with "but dip implies 
that the object dipped is at once removed from the 
liquid/' 

a To plunge is to immerse suddenly and violently " 
(Yes!) "for which douse and duck are colloquial 
terms" (?) 

Plunge permits the extreme of violence, while 
that attaching at times to douse and duck is hardly 
true to its terminology — it is a violence more against 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 49 

the will of the animal or person than one which in- 
jures the body; e. g., 

"The boys whom Job had threatened to dip were 
gasping and shivering as if they really had been ducked 
under.-'— The Classmate, Mar. 17, 1900. 

In everything except the act of placing in a 
fluid with rapid motion plunge is antonymous to 
douse and duck. 



Chapter VII. 

CHBISTIAN BAPTISM BY DIPPING IS 
NOT IMMERSION. 

Christian baptism by dipping is not immersion. 
The proof of this is to be found in the difference 
in meaning between the words dip and immerse. 
If the act described by dip is the same as that de- 
scribed by immerse, then dipping is immersing; but 
if the act is not the same, then logically and truly 
dipping is not immersing. The proof is simple. 

Merge, Emerge, Submerge, and Immerse. 

In English we have a small family of words of 
Latin parentage which retain in their modern set- 
ting the ancient family traits, and it is for this 
reason that we now treat the four words given above. 
None of these carry the sense of definite, invariable 
mode nor of limited time, except in very rare in- 
stances. 

As in Latin by mergo, so also in English we 
express the most permanent environment and incor- 
poration of things by merge. Latin mergo was used 

50 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 51 

of persons and things which in any manner had 
come into a fluid or other environment, and re- 
mained therein for some time or permanently, 
whether recoverable or not, and with no limit as to 
the amount of influence exerted thereupon; hence 
English merge is used to express the most permanent 
states of existence and influence. 

Growing out of the fact that when a soluble 
thing was merged it mingled with the merging ele- 
ment, mergo came to mean to mingle, to assimilate, 
so that we now find merge carrying the double mean- 
ing, to sink into and to mingle with. 

1 

"I traced the formation upwards along the edges 
of the upturned strata, from where the great conglom- 
erate leans against the granite, till where it merges 
into the ichthyolitic flagstones," — Miller, Footprints 
of the Creator, p. 29. 

2 

"I was told at one time the McCreadys formed a 
distinct clan, but since then they have merged them- 
selves in the other clans." — Eev. Wm, McCready in a 
dinner-table talk, Oct. 22, 1898. 

3 
" Finally the impassioned rhetoric of the preacher 
was merged into the finished periods of the author, and 
in the latest books of the Canon, prophecy takes the 
form of literature." — Farrar, The Minor Prophets, ch, 
ii, p. 16. 



52 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

Submerge. 

4 'Submerge, I. transitive. To place or plunge 
under water; cover with water; inundate, hence to 
drown; overwhelm. II, intransitive. To be plunged, 
or to lie under water; be hidden and buried as if im- 
mersed in water; be lost to sight."— The Standard 
Dictionary. 

" The peculiarity of the Derwentwater floating 
island is that it is not always visible; indeed, is gen- 
erally submerged, and rises to the surface only at irreg- 
ular, and sometimes very long, intervals. For years 
nothing will be seen of it, and then a stretch of verdure 
will appear from 30 to 300 feet long, and after remain- 
ing at the surface for a few weeks will sink again."— 
Family Herald (Montreal) April 11, 1900. 

" A stretch of country from nearly twenty miles 
north, to a point fifty miles south of Memphis, was 
submerged to a depth of from four to ten feet." — 
Christian Herald, M". Y. Mar. 31, 1897. 

Immerse. 
To wholly cover a person or thing with a fluid 
or with earth, permitting the same to remain for 
some time or permanently in that condition, with or 
without regard to the amount of influence exerted 
thereupon. 

" When part of an object is said to be immersed, 
the word is applied to that part alone, and the rest of 
the object is expressly excepted from its application." 
Conant, Baptizein, sec. iii, p. 88. 



Baptizing — Biblical a^d Classical. 53 

1 

11 "What is the Edison cell? It is a steel case, 11^ 
by 5 by 2 inches, holding a solution of potash, in which 
are immersed steel plates containing oxide of iron and 
oxide of nickel/'— Harper's Weekly, Dec, 1901, p. 
1302. 

2 

" He makes us see the boiling pitch of ^lalebolge, 
the bubbles that arise in the slime of the Styx from 
the sobs of the sullen who lie immersed in the black 
mire." — Methodist Review, Mar. -April, 1901, p. 233. 

3 

" These on the warm and genial earth, that hides 
The smoking manure, and o'erspreads it all, 
He places lightly, and as time subdues 
The rage of fermentation, plunges deep 
In the soft medium, till they stand immersed" 
— Cowper, The Task, Garden, p. 158. 

4 

" The clattering dairy-maid immersed in steam 

Singing and scrubbing midst her milk and cream.-" 
— Bloomfield, The Farmer's Boy. 

5 
"When we pass from the Gospels to the earliest 
period of the Church's life we are again immersed in 
critical difficulties."— Jas. Denney, D. D., Death of 
Christ, p. 75. 

The Prefix "Im." 
Before we pass from this topic it is well to 
notice that the prefix "im" exerts but a small influ- 



54 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

ence on the word merse, for as a rule when that 
prefix is found attached to a word the preposition 
is also found accompanying it in the sentence; e. (J., 
'Tnhersed in the arms." First part King Henry VI, 
Act IV, Scene 7.) "Thus these two imparadised 
in one another's arms." (Paradise Lost, Book IV, 
506.) "immeshed in his own snare." (Rawlin- 
son's Life and Times of Isaac and Jacob, page 86.) 
"immersed in ordure." (Dante.) 

The letter "e" prefixed to merge changes the 
meaning of the word, and is therefore indispensable. 

As before stated, modalists have since 1861 been 
habitually using the word immerse — which when 
properly employed conveys (as the examples from 
secular literature prove) the idea of intusposition 
for hours, days, months, and even years — in the 
same sense as the word dip, a word properly used 
only of momentary actions. The proof that they 
use it in this sense is threefold: first, they use it of 
their mode of baptism, which is a dipping; second, 
in their definitions alongside of and as being syn- 
onymous with the word dip; third, to translate the 
Latin word tingo. (See Conant's Baptizein, p. 116, 
examples 204, 206.) 

Dip, like bapto and tingo, is a round-trip 
word; it takes into and brings back out of, while 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 55 

merge, submerge, and immerse only carry into, and 
emerge carries only out of. Dip will not permit of 
delay, while immerse demands delay. Dip insists 
upon keeping near the surface, while immerse, sub- 
merge, and merge will gladly go to the bottom of 
the sea. 

Dipping in water under ordinary conditions is 
not fatal to life, while immersion is. Conant, a rep- 
resentative Baptist, admits this in the translations 
subjoined: 

1 

" Continually pressing down and immersing him 
while swimming, as if in sport, they did not desist till 
they had entirely suffocated him. 

2 
u And there according to command, being immersed 
by the Gauls in a swimming-bath, he dies." 

3 

" And if the winter's torrent were bearing one away, 
and he with outstretched hands were imploring help, 
to thrust even him headlong, immersing so that he 
should not be able to come up again." 

4 

" Desiring to swim through, they were immersed 
by their full armor." 

5 

' ' And the dolphin, angry at such a falsehood, ion- 
mersing killed him." — Baptizein, pp. 8, 9, 13, 20, 24. 



56 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

Cojstaint's Plea for the Use oe Immerse. 

" Among the several words, all agreeing in the 
essential idea of total submergence, by which baptizein 
may be expressed in English, the w T ord immerse has 
been selected for use in this Kevision, as most nearly 
resembling the original word in the extent of its appli- 
cation." — Baptizein, sec. 9, p. 162. 

If the above statement had been written of the 
univocal immerse of secular literature, then we 
should readily grant and even insist upon its resem- 
blance to baptidso. 

" It is a common secular word used in the daily 
affairs of life to express the most familiar acts and con- 
ditions. It is not an ecclesiastical term." 

It can never be an ecclesiastical term, for when 
properly used it describes a non-religious, secular 
act 

a It describes to every English mind, the same 
clearly marked, corporeal act as is expressed by the 
Greek word." 

Only to every English mind that has not been 
befogged by its peculiar use as a synonym of dip. 
The corporeal act of drowning often expressed by 
the Greek word baptidso in the classics, and also by 
the Latin parent word, is, although intimated, but 
rarely expressed in English by immerse. That Co- 
nant himself was under an illusion as to the mean- 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 57 

ing of immerse is clearly proved from his advocacy 
of its use in the stead of baptize. The word he 
made the plea for is spelt Immerse, but it is 
really Dip in disguise. 

If to modalists was granted the privilege of sub- 
stituting in our English Bible the word immerse for 
the word baptize, with the understanding that a 
proper definition of the former in accord with Latin 
and English secular usage should be placed in the 
margin they would lapse into silence. 

"It is the same potentially in English as Bap- 
tizien in Greek." 

Only when you keep it differentiated from Dip, 

and permit the association with it of the idea of 

drowning : 

" And immersed 
Deep in the flood, found, when he sought it not 
The death he had deserved, and died alone." 

This plea is from an author whose sole object in 
publishing his book was to make the world under- 
stand the classic meaning of baptidso, and to lead 
effusionists to accept of his conclusion, that baptidso 
was used by the Seventy and the writers of the New 
Testament, in none other than that classic secular 
sense. How shall we account for the fact that he 
who looked with such deep scrutiny into the secular 



58 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

meanings of baptidso did not see that he was not 
using immerse according to its meaning "in the daily 
affairs of life" when he employed it in the sense 
of dip? What reason could he give to himself for 
laying aside the word dip, the simple Saxon honesty 
of which would not permit it to equivocate, nor to 
do other than tell the truth ? 

Immerse has been an equivocal term since the 
day when a Latin writer first used it of a baptism 
performed by dipping. Granting that for which 
Conant contends (Baptizein, pp. 161, 162), namely, 
that the word baptize has been misused, we must 
also admit the misuse of immerse. 

We shall hereafter notice how that Tertullian 
and others used both tingo and rarely mergo of the 
Christian water rite — tingo, when the mode dipping 
and the spiritual influences associated with water 
baptism were uppermost in his mind; mergo when 
the classic meaning of baptidso was most promi- 
nently in view. 

If the early Church Fathers had given to bap- 
tidso an exhaustive study, or even formulated a sci- 
entific typology, then mergo would never have been 
used by Christians as a synonym of baptidso, as 
found in the Septuagint and the ISTew Testament. 

If at that time tingo and mergo had become 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 59 

synonymous in secular Latin literature, there would 
have been nothing unusual in the use of mergo of 
Christian baptism when administered by dipping; 
but inasmuch as no change of this kind occurred in 
their secular use, it should have caused earnest in- 
quiry on the part of modem readers and writers as 
to the reason for so startling an ecclesiastical use. 
Listen! it is Elder Wilkes who is speaking: 

" Neither is it necessary to determine, in order to 
feel sure that we have ... an immersion whether 
that which is immersed comes up or not. It is immersed 
. . . whether it rises or not." — Louisville Debate, 
Wilkes' Tenth Reply, p. 575. 

The naked fact of sinking under water — with its 
natural concomitants — exhausts the meaning of im- 
merse, and whatever besides this idea is necessary 
to express the ordinance of baptism, is not and can 
not be expressed by the word immerse. 

The act desceibed by the woed dip is not 
the same as that conveyed by immerse. foe 
this eeason christian baptism by dipping is not 
immeesion. immersion is not a religious, but a 
seculae act. 



Chapter VIII. 

MEKGO AND TINGO IN LATIN LITER- 
ATURE. 



MERGO, 
" Mergo, mcrsi, mersum, mergere. 1. A. To 
plunge or immerse in water, etc. B. With Personal 
pronoun of Passive in reflexive force : To plunge one's 
self, to plunge, etc. 2. To overwhelm by or in, to 
sink or plunge beneath the waters, etc; to swallow up, 
submerge, engulf, etc. 

II. Metonymy. A. 1. To plunge or thrust. 2. 
Pass, in reflexive force : a. Of rivers etc. ; to plunge ; 
i. e. run, empty itself, fall: b. Of constellations: To 
plunge, i. e. fall, set, sink: B. To push or thrust: C. 
To hide, conceal, bury, etc. 

III. Figuratively: A. 1. To plunge or immerse 
in. 2. With personal pronoun or Passive in reflexive 
force : To plunge one's self, to plunge into some career, 
etc. B* Of fortune, circumstances, sleep, etc. To 
overwhelm, engulf, sink, submerge, swallow up, etc. 

— White, Latin-English Dictionary. 

The word dip is purposely omitted from Dr. 
White's definition, for the reason that an exceed- 
ingly small percentage of examples of the use of a 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 61 

word in an unusual sense do not make a rule; and 
we are not now dealing with exceptions. 

Virgil's ^Eneid. 

1 

" Has Pallas been able to burn the fleet of the 
Greeks, and to drown submergere them in the sea for 
the fault of one?"— Bk. I, line 40. 

6 

"If it is worthy to believe, the envious Triton 
drowned immerserat the man caught among the rocks, 
in the foaming wave. 35 — Bk. VI, 174. 

" Triton had taken the hero by surprise among the 
rocks, and plunged him in a foaming wave; i. e., had 
drowned him amid the foaming waters." — Anthon's 
Virgil, Notes, p. 549. 

n 

" Ye Gods to whom is the empire of souls, . . . 
let it be lawful for me to speak and be heard ; allow me 
by your authority to lay open things merged mersas in 
the deep earth and darkness." — Bk. VI, 267. 

10 

" Immediately voices are heard, and a great wail- 
ing, and the souls of infants weeping in the first 
entrance, whom, deprived of sweet life, and snatched 
from the breast, black time bore away, and sunk mersit 
in bitter death."— Bk. VI, 429. 



62 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

Ovid's Metamorphoses. 

16 

In describing the deluge he says : 

" If any house remained and not thrown down was 

able to withstand so great a ruin, yet a wave more 

loftily covers the top of this , . . One man sails 

above the crops, or the top of a mersed mersae villa. 3 ' 

— Bk. I, 296. 
18 

Of Acteon's dogs it is written: 

" They stand round on every side; and their noses 
sunk mersis in his body, they tear asunder their 
master under the form of an imaginary stag." — Bk. Ill, 
249, 

20 

It is when describing men recently transformed 
into fishes that he says : 

" They leap on every side and besprinkle the ship 
with plenteous spray, and they emerge emergunt again, 
and return under the wave again." — Bk. Ill, 683. 

The New Testament, 
latin version. 

30 

" And beginning to sink down (or drown) demergi 
he cried out, saying, Lord save me." 

31 

" And he should be drowned demergatur in the 
depth of the sea." — Matt. xiv. 30; xviii. 6. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 63 

32 

' ' And filled both the boats so that they began to 
sink mergo" — Lk. v, 7. 

33 

" Such as drown mergunt men in destruction and 
perdition/' — 1 Tim. vi, 9. 

34 
" Fluvius in Euphratem mergitur." Pliny. 
The river is mersed into the Euphrates. 
" The influence of water intusposed in water is the 
most complete incorporation and assimilation; the 
larger body controlling and absorbing the lesser." — 
J. W. Dale, D. D,, Classic Baptism, p. 218. 

Together we have traced the English word im- 
merse far back to its Latin source, and have found 
that both in its Latin and English dress or form it 
has been used of a class of actions, any one of which, 
because of its nature, could not become a religious 
ordinance of Christianity. 

We have found mergo to be unquestionably a 
synonym of the English words drown, plunge, and 
sink, and a real antonym of the words dip, douse, 
and duck. We have seen it used in the sense of 
placing and forcing persons into water, deep earth, 
and the lower world, without regard to the manner, 
the length of time spent therein, or the amount of 



64 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

influence exerted upon them. Those characteristics 
— violence, depth, long time, and the intention not 
to withdraw immediately — which we have seen are 
not included within the scope of bapto and dip, are 
most prominent in the instances given above. In 
quotations 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 14 (see Appendix for 
missing numbers) violence is the predominating fea- 
ture. Depth inheres in 2, 3, 7. As to the time of 
the immersion of the men and ships in 1, 2, 3, 6, 14 
there is no stated limit, and the same is true of the 
souls of infants, Paris, Pallas and the submerged 
rock, 10, 11, 15, 5. Excepting numbers 18, 19, 25, 
30, there is not a suggestion of withdrawal from the 
mersing element or from the mersed condition. 

I have placed before you every instance of the 
use of mergo found in Virgil's iEneid, and every in- 
stance contained in the two editions of Ovid in my 
possession, with one — No. 26 — not located, from 
Dale's Classic Baptism, but have failed to find that 
word used in the sense of dip. 

By the word immerse — example !No. 4 from the 
iEneid — is meant not the immerse of modalist and 
modern ecclesiastical literature, but the immerse of 
English and Latin secular use — immerse equal to 
drown, "drown me in the vast sea." 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 65 

TINGO. 

Virgil's ^Eneid. 

1 

" Atlas has taught: he sings the wandering moon 
and labors of the sun . . . why winter suns should 
hasten to dip tingere themselves in the ocean." — Bk. I, 

745. 

2 

" And now he stalks through the middle of the sea, 
nor yet the wave hath wet tinxit his lofty sides." — Bk. 
Ill, 665. 

3 

" Camilla bore her way through the swelling wave, 
nor did she dip linger et her swift feet in the sea." — 
Bk. VII, 811. 

4 

" Others receive and return blasts from the windy 
bellows; others dip tingunt the metal hissing in the 
trough."— Bk. VIII, 450. 

5 

" Immediately they would enter on battles, and 
attempt the contest, unless now the rosy sun should 
dip tingat his wearied horses in the Iberian sea, and 
restore night by withdrawing day." — Bk. XI, 914. 

6 

" The sword which the fire-powerful god himself 
had made for Daunus his parent, and dipped tinxerat 
glowing hot in the Stygian wave." — Bk. XII, 91. 
5 



66 Baptizing— Biblical and Classical. 

7 

4 'And his neck being pressed with his foot, he 
wrenches the blade from his right hand, and dips tingit 
it shining in his deep throat." — Bk. XII, 358. 

Ovid's Metamorphoses. 



"When first the cold Triones (the seven stars) 

grew warm with the sunbeams, and tried in vain to 

dip tingi themselves in the forbidden ocean."— -Bk. 
II, 174. 

The event just described occurred when Phaeton 
drove the chariot of the sun in the stead of his 
father, and got out of the right course. Ovid con- 
ceived of the stars as wishing to take a dip in order 
to cool themselves. 

9 

" And first I dip tinxi the soles of my feet."— 
Bk. V, 595. 

10 

" And dips tingit the split torches in a black ditch 
of blood ; and lights the dipped intinctas torches at the 
double altars."— Bk. VII, 259, 260. 

11 

" The very blood hisses as sometimes does a glowing 
metal plate dipped tincta in a cold-water tank." — Bk. 
IX, 170. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 67 

tlngo and intingo in the n*ew testament 

Latin Version. 

12 

" He that dippeth intingens his hand with me in 
the dish/ 5 — Matt, xxvi, 23. 

13 

" He who dippeth intingens with me in the dish." 
— Mark xiv, 20. 

14 

" That he may dip intingat the tip of his finger in 
water." — Luke xvi, 24. 

15 
" He it is for whom I shall dip intingens the sop, 
and give it him. So when he had dipped intingens 
the sop he taketh and giveth it to Judas." — John xiii, 
26. 

16 

" And he is arrayed in a garment dipped tinctum 
in blood."— Bev. xix, 13. 

Quotations 1 and 5 differ from the others, and 
while many persons would condemn the use of dip 
for similar transactions, since the words plunge and 
sink answer the purpose so much better, yet there 
are a few English writers who, as Virgil has done, 
make use of a word which describes momentary ac- 
tions, instead of one which has no time limit. The 
reason for this difference in usage is to be found in 



68 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

the point of view. It is certain that Virgil thought 

of Phoebus (the sun) and his horses as entering the 

sea at terrific speed, and as hastily leaving it for 

the stable of his horses and his own palace. Phoebus 

in his address to Phaeton said: 

" The last part of the way is sloping, and needs 
sure guidance. Then also Tethys herself, who receives 
me in her subject waves, is wont to fear, lest I may be 
borne headlong." — Ovid, Metam., II, 67-69. Consult, 
Metam., II, 1-140, and Virgil's ^Eneid, XII, 113-115. 

This usage can be seen in our language when 

the writer conceives of the sun as not remaining in 

the ocean or in that into which he is said to dip. 

Thus Olive Schreiner, in her Story of an African 

Farm (pp. 18, 31) says: 

" He hoped when the first rays touched the hills, 
till the sun dipped behind them and was gone." " The 
sun had now dipped below the hills. " 

As the best English usage is represented by 

sink and plunge, so also we find Latin represented 

by mergo, and Greek by 8vo>, Svvo) duo, duno, 1 

KaraSva), kataduo, C7rt8va), epiduo, and /?a7rrt'£<D, baptidso. 

" Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run 

Along Morea's hills the setting sun." — Byron, The 
Corsair, canto III, 1. 



i"Sv'w, Sway— A. Causal Tenses, to make to sink, sink, plunge in. 
B. Noncausal, to get or go into. 4. Often used of the sun and stars, 
to sink into, to set."— Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 69 

" There we stayed and watched the sun take his 
nightly plunge into the sea of mountains, now dimly 
visible/'— Connor, The Sky Pilot, p. 50. 

" And Jacob came to a certain place and slept 
there, for the sun had gone down ISco." — Gen. xxviii, 
11. "And at even when the sun did set eSv." — Mk. i, 
32; Gen. xv, 12, 17; Ex. xvii, 12; xxii, 26; Lev. xxii, 
7; Deut. xvi, 6; xxiii, 11; Homer's Iliad, ii, 413; 
Odys., vii, 289; xiii, 29-35; xv, 185, 296; Josephus, 
Antiqo vii, 1, 3; xiii; viii, 2; Plutarch's Coriolanus, ch. 
xxvi. 

KaraS^o), Iliad, i, 475, 592, 605; 'EmMo, Eph. iv, 
26. Bcwm£<o, Argonautic Expedition, 512; Sibylline 
Oracles, Bk. v, 612. 



Chapter IX. 

MERGO AND TINGO IN PATRISTIC LIT- 
ERATURE. 

In approaching the writings of the early Latin 
Christians we find that mergo has not the promi- 
nence and is not used preferably to tingo; hence 
modern Anglo-Saxon medalists can not claim to have 
found in early Christian literature a precedent for 
their own exclusive use of immerse. The most they 
can claim is, that the early Latin Christians used 
both tingo and mergo of the water rite, giving the 
preference to the former. In addition to this fact, 
there is nothing indicating a thought on the part of 
those early writers^ to the effect that mergo was the 
exact equivalent of New Testament baptidso. The 
quite common use of tingo by Tertullian is at least 
his denial that he deemed mergo to be an equiva- 
lent of Biblical baptidso. 

Note carefully the words of Professor Henry C. 
Sheldon : 

" Finally the selection of words to denote the rite, 
on the part of Tertullian and others, is highly sig- 
nificant. Had the earliest Fathers who wrote in the 

70 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 71 

Latin language believed that immersion was an ac- 
curate and complete expression for Christian baptism, 
it would seem that there should have been no hesita- 
tion on their part to choose this as the standard term 
for the rite. Being accustomed to the verbs mergo 
and immergo in their mother tongue, they ought to 
have fixed at once upon immersio as being a word 
whose import their readers would perfectly compre- 
hend. But what did they do ? Tertullian, the oldest 
Christian writer of any note to use the Latin lan- 
guage, as a rule simply transfers the Greek word to 
his pages, and for baptism writes baptismus (occasion- 
ally baptisma). In his brief treatise on baptism 1 he 
uses this word no less than fifty times. To be sure, 
the corresponding verb is with him tinguo 2 rather than 
baptizo; still he makes use of the latter, and quite as 
often we should judge, as the verb mergo 3 which is an 
exceptional term in his references to this sacrament. 

Cyprian the next Latin writer who refers to the 
subject at any length, borrows, as a rule, both the 
Greek noun and verb, and writes baptismus and bap- 
tizo. The voice of Christian antiquity is therefore 
clearly against the use of the word ' immersion ' as an 
exact and adequate substitute for the word baptism." 
— Hist, of the Christian Church, vol. I, eh. v, pp. 288-9. 

Dr. Conant (Baptizein, pp. 117, 118) has quoted 
five instances of the use of mergo from Ambrose, 
bishop of Milan, born about A. D. 340 ; but is it not 



iDe Baptismo, a treatise containing twenty short chapters. 

2 Occurring in the tract De Baptismo, about fifty times. 

3 In De Baptismo, mergo occurs only three times, see chaps, vii, 
Tiil, and xii. 



72 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

the better way to collate all those passages in an 
author's works bearing on the subject under scrutiny, 
and contrast the frequency in the use of some words 
with the infrequency of others, and draw the neces- 
sary conclusion which such contrast suggests? 

I have at hand only two works of Ambrose — 
De Mysteriis and De Poenitentia. In the first 
named baptisma is found 8 times, baptizo 7, mergo 7, 
and tingo 1. In the second baptisma is found 20 
times, baptizo 8, and mergo in not one instance. 
What is the inference ? 

Again, Conant (Baptizein, p. 116, ex. 204) 
quotes from Tertullian as follows : 

" At ignoratis quod quicunque in Christum Jesum 
tincti sumus, in mortem ejus tincti sumus?" 

u Know ye not that so many of us were immersed 
into Jesus Christ, were immersed into his death?" 

Over against this we place the words of Cyril of 
Jerusalem (Catechesis Mystag., II, 6) : 

" At ignoratis quod quicunque baptizati sumus 
in Christum Jesum, in mortem ejus baptizati sumus?" 

" Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized 
into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death?" 

The translation of Ambrose agrees with that of 
Cyril (see De Poen., Bk. II, ch. ii, 9) ; what is the 
inference ? 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 73 

The inference deduced by modalists from the oc- 
casional use of mergo is, that the early Christian 
writers were in this use philologically exact, but I 
am sure that those who have made this inference 
have never with thoughtful scrutiny asked them- 
selves as to the meanings of tingo and mergo. If 
this inference (as to the philological correctness in 
the use of mergo) is a true one, then it is obligatory 
upon them to show that mergo underwent a change 
of meaning in the early Christian centuries, and at 
that time became a synonym of tingo. Again, could 
they show that mergo took on an additional meaning, 
retaining its original sense, even then all that could 
be deduced therefrom is, that it was used by the 
Latin Christians in an equivocal sense, of which the 
equivocal use in English religious literature would 
be an imitation. 

That mergo underwent a change of meaning or 
took on an additional one can not be substantiated, 
since we find those who use this word of the Chris- 
tian rite also using it in a purely secular, classic 
sense; e. g., 

" Come, plunge demerge your knife into the babe, 
enemy of none." 

" That repentance, sinner like myself, do you 
so hasten to, so embrace as a shipwrecked man the 



74 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

protection of a plank. This, repentance, will draw 
you forth when sunk mersum in the waves of sin." 

" So too he is sunk mergitur in fornication." — 
Tertullian, Apology, eh. viii; On Kepentance, ch. iv; 
On Idolatry, ch. i. 

Influences Brought to Bear Upon the Early 
Church Fathers. 

To understand many of the references to baptism 
in the early Christian writings, it is necessary for 
us to consider the influences brought to bear upon 
them, and to notice how those influences affected 
their language and practice. 

1. The transference of the Greek noun and verb, 
baptisma and baptizo, to their Latin pages is clearly 
traceable to the influence of the Greek JSTew Testa- 
ment. 

2. The influence of heathenism is seen in the 
studied elaboration of the simple New Testament 
rites. We have an example of this in the words of 
Tertullian : 

" Hereupon we are thrice immersed mergitamur, 
making a somewhat ampler pledge than the Lord has 
appointed in the Gospel. Then when we are taken up 
(as new born children), we taste first of all a mixture 
of milk and honey, and from that day we refrain from 
the daily bath for a whole week."~De Corona, ch. iii. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 75 

Read the words of Richard Watson, and do not 

fail to notice how Tertullian, by his use of inergo 

in the sense of dip, "laid the foundation for that 

corruption" of our English, so plainly discernible in 

the non-classic sense attaching to immerse when 

found in religious literature : 

" We grant that the practice of immersion is 
ancient, and so are many other superstitious append- 
ages to baptism, which were adopted under the notion 
of making the rite more emblematical and impressive. 
We not only trace immersion to the second century, 
but immersion three times, anointing with oil, signing 
with the sign of the cross, imposition of hands, exor- 
cism, eating milk and honey, putting on of white 
garments, all connected with baptism, and first men- 
tioned by Tertullian ; the invention of men like himself, 
who with much genius and eloquence had little judg- 
ment, and were superstitious to a degree worthy of the 
darkest ages which followed. It was this authority 
for immersion which led Wall, and other writers on 
the side of infant baptism, to surrender the point to 
the Antipsedobaptists, and to conclude that immersion 
was the Apostolic practice." . . . "Immersion, 
with all its appendages, dipping three times, naked- 
ness, unction, the eating of milk and honey, exorcism, 
etc., bear manifest marks of that disposition to improve 
upon God's ordinances, for which even the close of the 
second century was remarkable, and which laid the 
foundation of that general corruption which so speedily 
followed."— Theological Institutes, vol. II, pt. 4, pp. 
648-650. 



76 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

3. The desire for fullness of symbolism, so 
plainly to be seen in the early Church, is a reflec- 
tion of Judaism. We find it in the New Testament 
in Peter's request, "Lord, not my feet only, but also 
the hands and the head." (John xiii, 9) 1 We see 
it in the preference for dipping, as against sprink- 
ling and pouring, for the reason that dipping seemed 
to them to approach nearer to a washing of the per- 
son, such as was required by the Law, and to be a 
fuller form of the rite. 

This thought is sometimes found in modern 
writings, and it is very significant that it is in the 
works of those who practice dipping. 

Jewett wrote that 

" If the Christian felt his entire depravity, his utter 
defilement from the sole of the foot to the crown of the 
head, and desired to be ' thoroughly washed ' from his 
iniquity, he might crave the entire immersion of the 
person in the waters of baptism, as symbolical of the 
universal cleansing, which he sought by the influences 
of the Holy Ghost." 

" There is, on the other hand, a presumed cleansing 
of personal defilement naturally associated in thought 
with immersion of the body." — Wilkinson, The Baptist 
Principle, p. Ill; new ed. p. 141. 

There is nothing which would lead us to think 
that the large number of those who had come into 

i Compare this with the priestly consecration rite, Lev. viii, 23. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 77 

the practice of clipping at the opening of the second 
century had been led thereto by merely personal pref- 
erence. History and observation combine to teach 
us that ritualists in all ages are aggressive in prop- 
agating their views and in insisting that others adopt 
their practices : 

" As many as desire to make a fair show in the 
flesh, they Constrain you to be circumcised." — Gal. 
vi, 12. 

Whatever that something is which makes men 
love ritualism so passionately, and urges them for- 
ward with such tireless zeal in its propagation, it 
certainly operated no less strongly in the early Chris- 
tian centuries than now. Baptism by dipping is 
not the result of an evolution within the Church 
itself, but a practice which it adopted because of the 
influence brought steadily to bear upon it by that 
usage of the Pharisees and Essenes which culmi- 
nated in the great Hemerobaptist movement of the 
latter part of the first century. 

It has been said that 

" The Church began with sprinkling and pouring; 
and then lapsed for a time into the gross ritualism of 
dipping/' 

4. The only way to account for the use of mergo 
by Latin Christians, is to suppose that they were in 
so doing influenced by their knowledge of the classic 



78 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

synonymity of mergo and baptidso. This usage was 
certainly not based on any law of philology, and did 
not commend itself to them as being what we term 
scientifically accurate, but merely permissible, since 
it gave to them a larger baptismal vocabulary. 

At first sight the wonder is that they, knowing 
the similarity in meaning of classic baptidso and 
mergo, did not use mergo of the Christian rite much 
oftener, and I am constrained to believe that there 
must have been other facts, mighty to them, the might 
of which held them back from following the ever 
recurring impulse to use their own Latin word to 
translate the Greek term of which it was, in classic 
environment, so genuine a synonym. It is inferred 
that the reason for the use of baptidso by the Sev- 
enty and New Testament writers was as dark to 
them as it has been, and even now is, to the Chris- 
tian world. 

We are now prepared for the conclusion that 
the influence of the Greek language is seen by us in 
the desire on the part of Latin writers to use the 
word mergo as a synonym of baptidso when the 
latter was used of a religious water rite. I say 
"when the latter was used of a religious water rite/' 
for it was then only that baptidso and mergo were 
not naturally synonymous. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 79 

It would not bo a difficult task to trace in the 
writings of educated men the influence which a 
knowledge of the meanings of words belonging to 
other languages has upon their use of the words of 
their own mother tongue. Said Milton : 

" And though not mortal, yet a cold shudd'ring dew 
Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove 
Speaks thunder. 5 ' — -Comus. 

One less influenced by the Latin would have 
written, wets me all o'er; but he, knowing dip to be 
a synonym of tingo, used the former in a sense some- 
times conveyed by the latter (see under Tingo, ex. 
2). The use of dip in the sense of stain by English 
writers (see under Dip, ex. 13) is accounted for 
only as we admit the influence of words in other 
languages upon our own. 

Dippers have attached great blame to the trans- 
lators of the Authorized Version of our English 
Bible for adopting the word baptidso into that ver- 
sion instead of translating it, and Professor Jewett 
went so far as to say: 

" Had not King James, under the advice of the 
bishops, virtually ordered the translators not to trans- 
late the words relating to baptism, I believe it morally 
certain that that learned and pious assembly, acting 
even under the inferior light which they enjoyed, 
would have rendered the word, in every instance, in 



80 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

accordance with the views maintained in this discourse." 
—Mode and Subjects of Baptism, p. 61. 

A proof of the Greek scholarship of the trans- 
lators is found in that they did not render the word 
in every instance; — in fact in no instance — in accord 
with the views of Professor Jewett. 

The Latin Fathers, dippers as many of them 
were, did not, as a rule, attempt to translate the 
word, but transferred it to their pages, and the trans- 
lators of the Authorized Version followed their ex- 
ample; hence if the one body of Christians "acted 
under an inferior light" as to the meaning of Greek 
words, so also must the other. But there is nothing 
surprising in the fact that those who imitate the 
Latin Christian writers in the exceptional and seem- 
ing translation of New Testament baptidso by Latin 
mergo should find fault with those who did not do 
this; in other words, that those who, without know- 
ing why, followed an exceptional usage should raise 
objections to the action of those who — recognizing 
the difference in meaning between secular and relig- 
ious baptidso — refrained from translating the latter 
by a verbal equivalent of the former. 

Tingo and dip are synonymous terms ; therefore 
if an American scholar, for philological reasons, re- 
jects dip as a translating word for baptidso, how T 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 81 

could a Latin scholar do otherwise than reject tingo? 
This is what was done: Tertullian experimented 
with tingo as a translating word, but his effort "did 
not succeed with himself." 

Listen to Conant: 

" It was therefore the earliest usage, in translations 
into the Latin language, to express the literal meaning 
of this word. But the Greek name of the rite itself, 
and at a later period the Greek yerb also, were retained 
in the current Latin versions; an example of the 
practice of the Eomish Church to express sacred things 
by what was superstitiously regarded as their sacred 
appellations, such as azuma^ pascha, and the like." — 
Baptizein, sec. VII, pp. 142-4. 

If the literal meaning of baptidso is in Latin 
tinguo, as Conant avers, then why is not the literal 
meaning of baptidso in English dip ? And why did 
Conant translate the word which conveyed that so- 
called literal meaning immerse, rather than dip? 
(See his translation of Bom. vi, 3.) 

Where Dr. Conant thought he found a super- 
stitious practice of the Eomish Church, others can 
find only the desire to make the usage of the 

VERB CONFORM TO THAT OF THE NOUN. 

If alongside of the long continued custom of 
transferring the Greek noun to the Latin page we 



82 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 
place the fact of failure to make either of the 

VERBS MeRGO AND TlNGO REPRESENT BlBLICAL BAP- 

tidso, we shall then see the philological reason for 
the practice. 



(The reader is referred to Dr. Dale for his views on tingo as used 
in the writings of the early Latin Fathers, ' Christie and Patristic 
Baptism,"— pp. 569-571.) 



Chapter X. 

THE CLASSIC, SECULAR MEANINGS OF 
BAPTIDSO. 

Ba7rT%a), baptidso, I. t. To put anything, in 
any manner, into or under water or other penetrable 
substance, so as entirely to immerse or submerge it. 
To cause to descend below the surface, allowing or 
compelling the sunken object to remain covered for 
a long time or permanently; to immerse as opposed 
to dip. To sink into water and plunge to extreme- 
depths with no view to recovery, and for greatest 
influence, as to sink a ship, to drown a man. 

In secondary and figurative use, to intoxicate and 
stupefy with drugs. To thrust swords and instru- 
ments deep into the human body. To injure and 
totally ruin by means of any agent or instrument. 

II. i. To descend by force of gravity into water; 
to be overwhelmed and drowned therein. To be 
sunk or merged in the human body; stupefied by 
drugs and under the influence of intoxicants. To 
be under the potent spell of physical and mental 
influences or states ; of land, to be flooded with water. 

83 



84 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

I have not defined baptidso to mean "to dip in 
or under water/' as Liddell and Scott and also Co- 
nant have done. The one illustrative sentence given 
by the former in their lexicon was from the works 
of Plutarch, born A. D. 50; that is, after the word 
had been used of the administration of the religious 
water rite of Christianity, and without doubt was 
used by Plutarch in a ritual sense of a "magic lus- 
tration" as Conant has said (see Baptizein, p. 31, 
ex. 64). 

The ten instances in which Conant translated 
baptidso by "dip" will be reviewed later on, when 
the reasons for leaving it out of the definition will 
fully appear. 

Under some of the quotations from Greek au- 
thors there are illustrative sentences from English 
writers, to show by what words they describe the 
same class of transactions. In some instances where 
more than one English word is an equivalent of the 
Greek, there may be more than one illustrative ex- 
ample. This plan is taken in preference to all 
others, for the reason that in so doing we get the 
unanimous voice of that great body of writers to 
whom we look for English usage, and from whose 
use of words it is useless, as a rule, to appeal. The 
advantage of this course is, that only such words as 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 85 

are in general use will be employed in translation — 
words well understood by every reader, 

Rule I. 
When a Greek writer wished to express the 
total covering oe a person or thing in a fluid 
or other body he used the word baptidso, or 

one of its synonyms. 

" The ground idea expressed by this word is, to 
put into or under water (or other penetrable substance), 
so as entirely to immerse or submerge, that this act is 
always expressed in the literal application of the word, 
and is the basis of its metaphorical uses. This ground 
idea is expressed in English, in the various connections 
where the word occurs, by the terms (synonymous in 
this ground element) to immerse, immerge, submerge, 
. . . to plunge, ... to whelm." — Baptizein, 
sec. Ill, p. 87. 

IX. 

Dion Gassius, in his account of the battle of 
Actium, wrote as follows: 

" And hence they gained advantages each over the 
other; the one dropping within the lines of the ship's 
oars, and crushing the oar-blades; and the other from 
above baptizing jBaTrrilovr^ (sinking) them with stones 
and engines/' 3 — Eoman History, Bk. L, ch. 32. 

Shakespeare's Canidius speaks in a general way 

of this battle thus : 

" Our fortune on the sea is out of breath 
And sinks most lamentably." 

—Antony and Cleopatra, act III, sc 8. 



86 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

x. 

" For our vessel having been baptized j3aTrTL<r6£vTos 
(sunk or gone down) in the midst of the Adriatic, being 
about six hundred in number, we swam through the 
whole night,"— Life of Josephus, sec. III. 

" The balloon fell into the Adriatic, twenty-five 
miles distant from the Italian coast. The half-burnt 
car sank, but Zambeccari held fast by the ropes of the 
balloon."— Stories of Inventors and Dis., p. 67. 

Note.— The truth of Rule I will more fully appear as we note 
the fact that when a Greek writer used baptidso of a partial covering, 
he was careful to express in plain terms, the limit up to which the 
person or thing was baptized, thus narrowing the use of the word to 
the covered part, e.g.: 

XI. 

" They marched through with difficulty, the 
infantry being baptized up to the breasts lm t&v 
fjLao-Twv fiawTilofjievoi." — Polybius, History, bk. Ill, 72, 4. 

XII. 

" And even if the harpoon falls into the sea, it is 
not lost; for it is compacted of both oak and pine, so 
that when the oaken part is baptized (SairTi&ixivov (sunk) 
by the weight, the rest is buoyed up, and is easily 
recovered/ 5 — Ibid, History, bk. XXXIV, 3, 7. 

Rule II. 
When a Greek writer wished to express the 
intusposition of a person or thing in a fluid 
or other body, irrespective of the manner in 

WHICH IT WAS DONE, HE USED BaPTIDSO OR ONE OF 

ITS SYNONYMS. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 87 

" The object immersed or submerged is represented 
as being plunged, or as sinking down, into the ingulf- 
ing fluid or other substance ; or the immersing element 
overflows and thus ingulfs the object." — Baptizein, 
sec. Ill, p. 88. 

xiii. 

" And many struggling against the opposing swell 
towards the open sea . . . the billow rising high 
above baptized k^a-mi^v (drowned or sunk).— Josephus, 
Wars of the Jews, Bk. Ill, ch. ix, 3. 

XIV. 

Written of a body of cavalry, sent by Molon to 
attack Xenotas whose position was protected by the 
Tigris river and by marshes and pools: " Who coming 
into near proximity with the forces of Xenotas, through 
ignorance of the localities, required no enemy, but 
themselves by themselves baptizing (drowning) and 
sinking down (3a7rTt£ofjLevoL k<u /caraSwovrcs in the pools, 
were all useless, and also many of them perished."— 
Polybius, History, bk. V, ch. 47, 2. 

xv. 
" But while many of the Egyptians were sailing 
about him, he cast himself into the sea, and with 
much difficulty escaped by swimming. And it is said, 
that when cast away and drowning fiaWofxtvos koI 
/?a7nri£o/A€vos having in his possession many papers with 
which he would not part, he therefore held up the 
papers above the sea with one hand, and swam with 
the other; but the small boat was immediately 
swamped."— Plutarch, Julius Csesar, xlix. 



88 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

" Wallace charging the horse, drove the terrified 
animals into the morasses, where some sank at once, 
and others plunging, threw their riders to perish in 
the swamp. Desperate ... as his archers fell 
headlong from the rocks, and his cavalry lay drowning 
before him, Lord Percy called up his infantry." — The 
Scottish Chiefs, p. 343. 

" Seeing the drowning man exhausted, and sinking, 
he dashed forward again, diving after him; and happily 
succeeded in saving his life." — Chambers's Mis., vol. 
6, Tale of Norfolk Island, p. 12. 

Rule III. 
When a Greek writer wished to express the 
act of placing anything in a fluid or other 
body easy to penetrate, or the condition of 
being in a liquid, for an indefinite time min- 
utes, hours, days ; for a limited time the time 

being stated, and permanently, he used bap- 

TIDSO. 

(a) For an {definite time. 

XVI. 

" The water solidifies so readily around everything 
that is baptized ^omridOivn (sunk) into it, that they draw 
up salt-crowns when they let down a circle of rushes." 
— Strabo, Geography, bk. XII, ch. 5, 4. 

XVII. 

" But when Titan baptized (SairTi£ero (sank) himself 
into the ocean-stream." — Argonautic Expedition, line 
512. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 89 

" Now Juno . . . bade set 
The never wearied sun ; unwillingly 
He sank ?8v into the ocean streams." 
— Bryant's Translation of Homer's Iliad, p. 174, 301. 

(b) For a limited time, the time being stated. 

xvin. 
" Alexander happening to be there at the stormy 
season, and accustomed to trust for the most part to 
fortune, set forward before the swell subsided ; and the 
army marched together the whole day in water, being 
baptized /JaTm^o/xeVwv (immersed) up to the waist."— 
Strabo, Geography, bk. XIV, ch. 3, 9. 

" And were under water up to the navel."— 
Whiston's Josephus, p. 64. 

" Zambeccari held fast by the ropes of the balloon, 
though immersed in water to his neck ... In this 
situation he floated on the water for some hours, the 
balloon being still inflated."— Timbs, Stories of 
Inventors and Dis., p. 67. 

XIX. 

" Spoken with comic extravagance of one whose 
vessel is wrecked, and he with it is a prey to the 
ingulfing floods : ' Who now the fourth day is baptized 
(3a7TTi^€TaL (submerged) leading the life of a miserable 
mullet.' " — Eubulus, Fragment of Nausicaa, a Comedy. 

xx. 
" They say that the Phoenicians who inhabit the 
so-called Gadira, sailing four days outside the Pillars 
of Hercules with an east wind, come to certain desert 



90 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

places full of rushes and sea-weed, which when it is 
ebb-tide are not baptized /SaTrritecrOat but when it is 
flood-tide are flooded Kara/cA^eo-ftxt." — Aristotle, Won- 
derful Reports, 136. 

In this quotation baptidso is treated as a synonym 

of Tcatakludso, which is defined by Liddell and Scott, 

"to dash over, flood, deluge, inundate, overflow." 

6 c Near Suez I passed over large surfaces of desert, 
which were inundated on occasion of high tides and 
easterly winds."- — Dawson, Egypt and Syria, p. 67. 

" The outer Minot is entirely submerged at high 
tide,"—The Classmate, Oct. 21, 1899. 

(c) Permanently. 

XXI. 

" But myriad things shall a dire race bewail 

At the end, when the sun sets SuWros not to rise, 
But to remain submerged (ZaTTTio-Ou-q in ocean's waves 
Because it saw the baneful wickedness 
Of many mortals/ 5 — M. S. Terry, S. T. D., Sibylline 

Oracles, Bk. V, 610-614. 

XXII. 

"And dying they filled the marshes with blood, 
and the lake with dead bodies ; so that until now, many 
barbaric bows, and helmets, and pieces of iron breast- 
plates, and swords, are found baptized e/x/JaTrrioyx^as in 
the pools."— Plutarch, Life of Sylla, ch. xxi. 

" Fragments of iron breastplates and swords are 
found buried in the mud."™Langhorne's Plutarch's 
Lives, vol. II, p. 376. 



Baptizing — Biblical aito Classical. 91 

" Mersed in the marshes/' — J. W. Dale. " Immersed 
in the pools. " — T. J. Conant. 

Shakespeare's words are a sidelight: 

" As rich 
As is the ooze and bottom of the sea 
With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries." 
—King Henry V, act I, sc. 2. 

XXIII. 

" More pitiable than those who are tempest -tossed 
in the deep, whom wayes receiving one from another, 
and overwhelming eVt/JaTrr^oi/Ta do not suffer to rise out 
of the surge ; so also the souls of these are driven about 
beneath the waves, being overwhelmed /?€/3a7rrto"/xej/at 
with wine/' — Basil, Discourse XIV, Against Drunk- 
ards, sec. 4. 

XXIV. 

Of the condition of the soul in one of the vicious, 
it was said : 

" She dies therefore as the soul may die; and 
death to her, while yet baptized ^e/JaTrrtcr/xeV^ (sunk) in 
the body, is to be down sunk KaraSwai in matter, and 
to be filled therewith." — Plotinus, Ennead I, bk. 8, 
Good and Evil, sec. 13. 

" But the soul that is carnal and immersed in 
sense, like a heavy and dark vapor, with difficulty is 
kindled and aspires."— Langhorne's Plutarch's Lives, 
Vol I, p. 88. 



92 Baptizing- — Biblical and Classical. 

Rule IV. 
When a Greek writer wished to express the 
largest influence exerted by a liquid ; the per- 
son or thing being environed by the same, he 

USED THE WORD BaPTIDSO. 

During the progress of the Wilkes-Ditzler debate 
at Louisville, Kentucky, Elder Wilkes said : 

" Does not my friend know that the Greeks did 
not include the idea of the consequences of being put 
into water, as staying in the water or being drowned, 
as part of the primary meaning of the word ? He 
knows that, yet he insists that the Greeks used the 
word laptizo to include the idea of drowning. They 
never did so 'in the world.' "—Seventh Reply, p. 525. 

If Elder Wilkes had opened the volume written 
by the great modalist scholar, he would have read: 

" But the Greek word is also used where a living 
being is put under water for the purpose of drowning, 
and of course is left to perish in the immersing 
element." — Oonant, Baptizein, p. 89. 

Josephus in his works used baptidso fifteen times. 
Whiston in his translation rendered it "drown" in 
seven instances, "sink" in three, and the remaining 
five — "dip," "dipped till drowned," "plunge," 
"sheathe," "destruction." Eive of the instances 
translated "drown" relate to men, or to ships with 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 93 

men. One instance is when he likened the city of 
Jotapata to a ship sinking in a storm. 

The intention of a translator is to give 
the exact sense of the original, hence he is an 
impartial witness to the meaning of words in 
the language from which he translates. 

While the definition of baptidso by Liddell and 
Scott is too brief to be of great value to us in this 
inquiry, yet it is clear that they recognized drown- 
ing as a meaning of the word in its classic use, for 
the figurative expression yvovs fiaTTTi&pa/ov to pupataov 
is rendered by them thus : ' ' Seeing that he was 
being drowned with questions, or getting into deep 
water," and again i( KaTa^aTrno-Trjs, ov, 6, one who 
drowns, coined by Greg. Naz. I, p. 670 as opposed 
to fiairTKTTris " (one who baptizes.). 

When used of drunkenness baptidso expresses 
and emphasizes a consequence; namely, the extreme 
ill effects of imbibing intoxicants. The simple act 
of drinking was expressed in Greek by mW, and the 
first ill effects of drinking intoxicants by dKpo0<opa£, 
but the most powerful by (SanT^ta and ^Ovm. 

It WAS THE QUITE COMMON ASSOCIATION OF THE 

consequences of the act of baptizing, with the 
word Baptidso, that originated its figurative 



94: Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

use, for in figurative use thought is attracted 
directly and only to the influences or effects 
exerted by the baptizing element or agent, 
while the mode of the baptizing is left unde- 
termined because unimportant. 

How can we logically account for the derivation 
of baptidso, except as we admit the felt need of a 
word which would convey the idea of "staying in 
the water/ 5 as well as of sinking into it ? 

There is no reason for raising a question as to 
whether baptidso in its very earliest use was used 
more of an act than of the consequences of that act, 
for it could have been in use only for a short time 
ere it came to be used both of the act and its conse- 
quences, as the Greek quotations given fully prove. 

There is nothing unique in this usage of baptidso, 
since it may be truthfully said of the words sink, 
plunge, throw into, cast into, that in their very ear- 
liest use they did not include the idea of the conse- 
quences of being placed in water ; yet writers of the 
best English do include the idea of consequences or 
effects within the meaning of each one of them. 

Greek Quotations Illustrating Rule IV. 

xxv, XXVI. 
" And she breathed, as persons breathe after hav- 
ing been baptized fJefiairricrdai (drowned), and emitted 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 95 

a low sound from the chest, like the so-called ventrilo- 
quists. . . ' And she breathed, as if breathing 
after having been baptized /?e/3a,7TT co-Oat (drowned).'" — 
Hippocrates on Epidemics, bks. V and VII. 

" The water was nearly five feet deep in the house 
when they were taken out Saturday. They had been 
almost immersed for several hours. Mrs. Crowell 
apparently a feeble woman, gasped and trembled 
as though drowning when she was carried from the 
boat.' 9 — Kansas City Weekly Star, June 3, 1903. 

XXVII. 

"And when they ventured to come near the 
Eomans, they became sufferers themselves before they 
could do any harm to the other, and were drowned 
€/3a7TTigoVfo they and their ships together. . . And 
for such as were drowning $ojkti<tQLv7&v in the sea, if 
they lifted their heads above the water they were either 
killed by darts, or caught by the vessels/' — Whiston's 
Josephus, Wars, bk. Ill, chap. X, 9, p. 541. 

" Montano: If that the Turkish fleet 

Be not inshelter'd and embay'd, they are droioned. 
Othello: News, friends; our wars are done, the Turks 
are drown'd." — Othello,, act II, sc. 1. 

XXVIII. 

" And others leaping into the sea were drowned 
aireTrvtyovTo or struck by the enemy were drowned 
i(3a7TTL£ovTo. " — Dion Cassius, Eoman History, bk. L, 
ch. 35. 

The foregoing was written of seamen at the battle 
of Actium who tried to make their escape from the 



96 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

burning vessels. 'ATrowviyu) and /k^r^o) are used in 
the sense, to suffocate hy water, to drown. For other 
instances of apopnigo, see Mark v» 13; Luke viii. 33; 
of pnigo, Gk. Quo. No. LXXYIIL 

XXIX. 

" The writer explains the ground of the allegory 
(as he regards it) of Neptune freeing Mars from Vulcan, 
thus: " Since the mass of iron, drawn red hot from 
the furnace is baptized with water vSan PairTL&TaL ; and 
the fiery glow, by its own nature quenched with water 
v8art KaTao-fieo-Oev ceases." — Homeric Allegories, ch. 9. 

In this sentence KaTao-fSevvvfu and fiairrL^ approach 
as near to one another as it is possible for them to do. 
The purpose of each is the same ; it is to act together 
as synonyms ; PaTrri^rai conveying the idea of cover- 
ing with water, including its effect; KaTao-fizvOlv con- 
veying the idea of effect alone. 

Do not fail to notice that this is unlike bapto 
(see under Bapto, No. Ill) to put into and with- 
draw immediately for the purpose of cooling slightly. 
Baptidso as here used requires (1) to entirely cover 
with water in any manner; (2) to keep covered for 
some time; (3) until thoroughly cooled or quenched. 

xxx. 
The statement which follows purports to be a 
conversation between Ulysses and Gryllus, whom 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 97 

Circe has transformed into a brute, and who prefers 
to remain a brute. They speak of Agamemnon, 
whose love for Argyunus was not reciprocated, and 
who for this reason committed suicide by throwing 
himself into the lake: 

" Then bravely baptizing /3a7rTt£o)v into lake Copais, 
that there he might extinguish his love, and be freed 
from desire." — Plutarch, Life of Gryllus, chap. vii. 

There is a similar instance related by the same 
writer in his life of Theseus. Solon, because his 
love was rejected by Antippe, 

" In despair cast ptyavros himself into a certain river 
and perished," — (chap. xxvi). 

" Actually returning home, he throws himself into 
the river, and the body is not found till next day." — 
Euskin, Ethics of the Dust, Crystal Eest, p. 145. 

In an account of the great plague in London it 
is stated that 

"In these distresses some broke out into the 
streets, and would run directly down to the river, and 
if they were not stopped by the watchmen, plunge 
themselves into the water. " i. e. , to drown themselves. 
— Chambers's Mis., vol. 5, History of the Plague, p. 16. 

"To Thrust Swords and Instruments Deep into 

the Human Body." 

xxxi. 

Chrysostom when writing of David's clemency 

toward Saul, when the latter had unwittingly placed 



98 Baptizing— Biblical and Classical. 

himself in his power (1 Sam. xxiv, 3-7; xxvi ? 7-9), 

said: 

" Sawest thou the nets of David stretched, and 
the prey intercepted therein, and the huntsmen stand- 
ing, and all exhorting to baptize /?a7nrtW the sword into 
the enemy's breast?"— Select Discourses, XXIX, On 
Clemency. 

XXXII. 

" And stretching out the right hand so as to be 
unseen by none, he baptized i^armae the whole sword 
into his own neck/' 1 — Josephus, Jewish War, bk. II, 
ch. XVIII, p. 4. 

" William of Walworth, mayor of London. . . 
plunged his short sword in Tyler's throat."— Life of 
John Wycliffe, p. 188. 

"Is this your boasted peace? Not to sheathe the 
sword in its scabbard, but to sheathe it in the bowels 
of your countrymen." — Pitt, On the American War. 

The idea of total covering is here very promi- 
nent, hence Whiston rendered it : 

"And stretching out his right hand, that his 
action might be observed by all, he sheathed his entire 
sword into his own bowels." 



1 2(/>ayr/, sphagay, the spot where the victim is struck, usually 
the throat. 



Chapter XI. 

THE THEOEY OF DE. CONANT NOT SUS- 
TAINED BY CLASSIC GREEK 
LITERATURE. 



Definition. 

"To plunge to extreme depths; to sink with no 
view to recovery." 

We are now face to face with one of the most 
glaring mistakes made by Dr. Conant when treating 
of the meaning and use of Baptizedn. Listen to his 
words : 

"The word immerse, as well as its synonyms im- 
merge, etc., expresses the full import of the Greek 
word BAPTIZEIN. The idea of emersion is not in- 
cluded in the meaning of the Greek word. It means 
simply to put into or under water (or other substance), 
without determining whether the object immersed 
sinks to the bottom, or floats in the liquid, or is im- 
mediately taken out. This is determined, not by the 
word itself but by the nature of the case, and by the 
design of the act in each particular case. But the 
Greek word is also used where a living being is put 
under water for the purpose of drowning, and of 



100 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

course is left to perish in the immersing element. All 
this is evident from the following examples." — Mean- 
ing and Use of Baptizein, sec. Ill, pp. 88, 89. 

In all this inquiry, when it has been necessary 
to quote the words of representative modalists, the 
intermixture of truth with error has made quotation 
exceedingly difficult. In not a few instances it has 
been found necessary to make two separate citations 
of one statement. We are now confronted with one 
of these mixed utterances. 

Baptidso. 

That baptidso does not determine whether the ob- 
ject sinks to the bottom or floats in the liquid can not 
be doubted; nor does it determine that the object is 
immediately taken out. Baptidso does exactly the 
opposite — "the word itself" determines that the ob- 
ject is isroT immediately taken out. 

Conant ought to have seen that if "emersion is 
not included in the meaning of the word," as a mat- 
ter of course immediate emersion is excluded. 
Farther than this, he might have seen that the word 
dip and the act of dipping both require absolutely 
immediate emersion, and therefore dip and baptidso 
are not alike in meaning, and that classical baptizing 
and Biblical baptizing are not the same. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 101 

The "nature of the ease and the design of the 
act" have before the writing of the sentence operated 
in causing the selection of the word baptidso and 
the rejection of bapto; hence after the sentence is 
written "the nature of the case" can have no deter- 
mining power whatever. 

Immerse. 
Conant's misapprehension originated in the word 
immerse, which being equivocal, that is, having the 
powers of two words, carries either the meaning of 
the one or the other "as the nature of the case and 
the design of the act" require. Let us take time to 
illustrate this. Subjoined are two sentences contain- 
ing immerse : 

"He was accustomed to have his dessert placed on 
a sideboard near a wall and left all night, the legs of 
the sideboard being immersed in water; notwithstand- 
ing this precaution, the sideboard in the morning was 
covered with ants, and the sweets were plundered/' 
— -Chambers's Mis., Vol. 4, Anecdotes of Ants, p. 18. 

"And was immersed by John in the Jordan." — 
Benj. Wilson, Emphatic Diaglott, Mark i, 9. 

The word is equivocal, hence "the nature of the 
case and the design of the act" must determine the 
meaning in each case. The meaning to dip must be 
given to the word in the second example, while the 



102 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

sense to dip must not be given to it in the first. Give 
to the first example the meaning to dip, and to the 
second the meaning "to wholly cover a person with 
water, permitting the same to remain for a long time 
or permanently in that condition, with or without 
regard to the amount of influence exerted thereupon/' 
and you have exactly that which the writers did not 
intend. 

Let us ask, Why does an equivocal word at any 
time deceive us ? It deceives us because we when 
reading are left to decide as to its meaning, and our 
failure to give it one consistent sense in all its uses 
misleads us. If we were not misled we should detect 
the author's and the word's fallacy or equivocation. 

If Conant had seen that it was only when differ- 
entiated from dip that "immerse expresses" (almost) 
"the full import of the Greek word Baptizein" he 
would not have affirmed so much as he has done > nor 
have permitted it to lead him so far astray as to 
the meaning of baptidso. 

Our duty to ourselves is to find among the ex- 
amples cited by Dr. Conant — Nos. 16, 17, 27, 28, 
41, 43, 44, 48, 51, 52, 72, 73, 75, 76, 81, 84, 85, 
Meaning and Use of Baptizein, p. 89 — (1) an "ob- 
ject put into or under water . . . immediately taken 
out; 9 (2) the word used in reference to a living 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 103 

being put under water without intending to drown 
him. 

Illustrative Examples Cited by Conant. 

xxxiii. 

" Continually pressing down and baptizing /Wri'- 
£oi/t€? him while swimming, as if in sport, they did not 
desist till they had entirely suffocated him."— Josephus, 
Antiquities, bk. XV, ch. iii, 3. 

xxxiv. 

"And there according to command, being bap- 
tized fiaTTTL&pevos by the Gauls in a swimming-bath he 
dies/'— Jewish War, bk. I, ch. xxii, 2. 

xxxv. 

" As you would not wish, sailing in a large and 
richly gilded ship, to baptize ftamrLtfivQai^ so neither 
choose, dwelling in a house too large and costly, to 
endure storms of care." — Epictetus, Moral Discourses, 
Fragment XI. 

xxxvi. 

"And if the winter's torrent were bearing one 
away, and he with outstretched hands were imploring 
help, to thrust even him headlong, baptizing fSawT^ovra 
him so that he should not be able to come up again." 
— Lucian, Timon or the Man-hater, 44. 

XXXVII. 

"And neither can the sword-smith determine 
whether he shall sell the sword to a murderer, nor the 



104 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

shipwright whether he shall build ships for a robber 
. . . nor the pilot whether he saves in the voyage, 
one whom it were better to baptize /Ja^i-to-at." — The- 
mistius, Oration IV. 

xxxvm. 

"Desiring to swim through, they were baptized 
ifiaTTTtiovTo by their full armor." — Suidas, Lexicon. 

"The other soldier endeavored to swim ashore, 
but encumbered by his greatcoat, he was seen . . . 
to raise his hands, and uttering a faint cry to Heaven 
for mercy, he instantly sank."— Chambers's Mis., 
Vol. 6, Tale of Norfolk Island, p. 4. 

XXXIX. 

Gregory in his panegyric of Origen (xiv), de- 
scribes him as an experienced and skillful guide 
through the mazes of philosophical speculation: 

" He himself would remain on high in safety, and 
stretching out a hand to others, save them, as if 
drawing up persons baptizing (SaTrTL^ofxivovs.^ 

XL. 

"Shall I not laugh at him, who having baptized 
PaTTTio-avTa his ship with much merchandise, then 
blames the sea for having engulfed it full laden? — 
Epistle to Damagetus. 

XLI. 

" But a violent storm coming on, and the ship 
being in danger of baptizing /3a7rrt£€o-0at, he threw out 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 105 

all the lading into the sea, and with difficulty escaped 
in the empty ship/' — Fable, The Shepherd and the 
Sea. 

For Conant's Nos. 51 and 72, see Greek quota- 
tions VII and XXIII. 

XLII. 

"But now since a part of us is contained by the 
body (as if one has the feet in water, but with the rest 
of the body stands out above), towering up by what is 
not baptized fScLTrncrOivTi in the body; we by this are 
attached, as to our own center, with that which is the 
center of all. 3 '— Plotinus, Ennead VI, bk. IX, On the 
Good, sec. 8. 

XLIII, 

An answer to the question why fevers are more 
difficult to cure in brutes than in men : 

" Because they have their nature and perceptive 
faculty baptized (Se/SaTrTKTfiivrjv in the depth of the body, 
and not diverted to outward things by what pertains to 
the rational soul, as is the case with men."— Alex, of 
Aphrodisias, Medical and Phys. Problems, II, 38. 

XLIV. 

" They have the soul very much baptized /Je/JaTn-to-- 
ixivrjv in the body ; and on this account the seminal germ, 
partaking in greatest measure of the rational and phys- 
ical power, causes their offspring to be more wise. — 
Medical and Phys. Problems, I, 28. 

XLV. 

" And every form of war was enacted and witnessed : 
the natives sustaining the conflict with zeal and with 



106 Baptizing- — Biblical and Classical. 

all their force; the others, having greatly the advan- 
tage both in number and in the unexpectedness of the 
attack and slaying some on land and baptizing 
/SairTi^ovTwv others with their boats and huts into the 
lake." — Heliodorus, Ethiopics (Story of Theag. and 
Char.) bk. I, ch. 30. 

XL VI. 

" As I was once twining a garland, I found Cupid 
in the roses ; and holding him by the wings, I baptized 
i(3dirTL<r him into wine, and took and drank him; and 
now, within my members, he tickles with his wings." 
—Julian, Ode on Cupid. 

" Leon. There may be in the cup 

A spider steep' d, and one may drink, depart 
And yet partake no venom, for his knowledge 
Is not infected." 

— Winter's Tale, act II, sc. 1. 

" Poins.— My lord, I will steep this letter in sack 
and make him eat it. — 2 King Henry IV, act II, sec. 2. 

XLVII. 

" Contrasting beauty, as it appears in imperfect 
material forms, with absolute and perfect beauty in 
the soul, he says: 'Beauty in bodies, is in flesh 
and sinews, and things that make up the body (of 
animals, for example) beautifying them indeed, as much 
as possible, but also itself partaking of their deformity, 
and baptized ^/JaTrrtcr/xei/ov into it.' " — Simplicius, Com- 
mentary on Manual of Epictetus, ch. 38, 10. 

What a demonstration ! Seventeen examples, and 
not one in which the object was "immediately taken 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 107 

out." We may go farther and say, in all the ninety- 
two examples in which PairT%a) was used in a classic 
sense literally, there is not one in which the object 
was immediately taken out. 

Strange as it may seem, this leading modalist has 
placed before us no less than six examples (Nos. 
XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXYI, XXXVII, VII, 
XLV), in a total of seventeen, in which the declared 
intention was to drown the unfortunate victims. In 
addition to the foregoing, there is not to be found 
one instance in pre-Christian classic literature, where 
baptidso is used with reference to a living being put 
under water without intending to drown him. Cupid 
is looked upon as being an immortal, and therefore 
could not be drowned. 



Chapter XII. 

BAPTIDSO MISTRANSLATED DIP AND 
DUCK. 

XL VIII. 

Achilles Tatius, when describing how Egyptian 
boatmen drank water from the Nile, wrote: 

" For their drinking cup is the hand. For if any 
of them is thirsty while sailing, stooping forward from 
the vessel he directs his face towards 6ts the stream, 
and lets down his hand to "'s 1 the water, and sinking 
pawTlvas it hollowed, and filling it with water, he darts 
the draught towards his mouth, and hits the mark." — 
Story of Clitophon and Leu., bk. IV, ch. 18, 

Translating haptisas "dipping" makes of the 
other factors of the sentence nothing but a tedious 
circumlocution, since the one word "dipping" de- 
scribes the whole of the act — the letting down, the 
filling, and the lifting; e. g., 

"This bread is boiled in Nile water, making a 
soft mass, which the men surround three times a day, 
and eat with their hands, dipping out of the one 
wooden bowl." — Prime, Boat Life in Egypt, p. 178. 

l Eis is translated to or unto no less than four hundred times in 
the Authorized Version of the New Testament. 

108 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 109 

A close scrutiny of the quotation convinces us 
that we have a word picture in which each separate 
part of the multiform action is minutely described. 
Bapto did not suit the author's purpose, hence he 
selected baptidso, which conveys the idea of placing 
in, but affirms nothing of taking out, therefore "fill- 
ing" and "darts" are necessary to complete the sen- 
tence and give the sense. Baptidso also permitted 
the hand to remain mersed during a lurch of the 
vessel, thus giving the boatman an opportunity to 
secure accuracy of aim. 

" I discovered a hollow in the center of the floor, 
sufficiently deep and broad to allow an ordinary 
bucket to sink, be submerged^ and Jill, but, ah! in that 
basin there was a discarded iron pail which some care- 
less one had dropped into the beer (well) and failed to 
recover it." — Sunday-school Journal, Mar. 1905, 
Failure of One "Beer." 

XLIX. 

We now come to another instance which Conant 
rendered by its antonym "dip," the needs of which 
seem to be met by bapto rather than by baptidso. 
There is downward movement without violence, the 
passing from one element to another to a limited ex- 
tent, and something additional brought back. The 
writer was narrating the story of a Roman general 



110 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

who fell mortally wounded in an ambush of the 

Samnites at the Caudine Forks, and said : 

"But in the depth of the night surviving a little 
longer, he took away the shields of the slain enemies, 
and having immersed, or sunh /3a7rrtVas his hand into 
the blood, he set up a trophy inscribing it, ' The 
Eomans against the Samnites to trophy-bearing Jove. 5 " 
—Plutarch, Parallels Between Greek and Eoman 
History, III. 

The hand of the wounded Roman general w T as 
totally covered with blood, not by the sprightly act 
of dipping, but by the slow, time-consurning move- 
ment of a wounded soldier near to the portals of 
death. 

L. 

One compared himself to a cork of a fisherman's 

net floating at the surface of the water, while the 

other parts of the fishing-tackle are doing service in 

the depth below: 

" For as when the rest of the tackle is toiling deep 
in the sea, I as a cork above the net, am unsunk apdir- 
naros in the brine." — Pindar, Pythic Odes, II, 79, 80, 
(144-147.) 

Dr. Conant's translation, "I am undipped in the 
brine," spoils the contrast intended by the author. 
The idea is, that while the tackle was baptized, the 
cork was not baptized, for while the tackle was "toil- 
ing deep in the sea" the cork was bobbing about on 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. Ill 

the surface; i. e., was performing a series of dip- 
pings. 

" Nimble old man, who, for all emergencies has 
his light jest; and ever, in the worst confusion will 
emerge, corklike, unsunk" — Carlyle, French Kevolu- 
tion, chap, iv, p. 34. 

LI. 

Among other implements of his art which the old 
fisherman is said to have hung up as a votive offer- 
ing are mentioned: 

" And fishing-rod thrice stretched (an extension 
rod of three pieces) and cork unsunh ap&irTi<iToi> in 
water." — Archias, Epigram, X. 

The fact which Archias wished to communicate 

was that the cork was an unused one. One reason 

for the use of corks in fishing is that by the sinking 

thereof it may be quickly known that fish are hooked 

or meshed : 

" The skipper will eagerly scan the long line of 
floating bladders to see if any of them have sunk cloivn 
in the water, which is a token of a great catch." — 
Chambers's Mis., vol. 3, Herring and the Whale, p. 9, 

lii. 
Writing of the faults of style of Aristophanes, 
Plutarch quotes from him the following example of 
punning : 

" For he is praised," says he, " because he baptized 
i(3dTTTL<rev the stewards ; being not stewards (tamias) but 



112 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

sharks (lamias).' 5 — Comparison of Aristophanes and 
Menander. 

" Because he dipped the stewards/' is the Oonant 
rendering; and in a note he says: " The significance 
of the Greek verb, in this connection, is aptly expressed 
by the English translator of these writings of Plutarch : 
" For he is much commended (saith he) for ducking 
the chamberlains.' 5 

Neither dip nor duck can represent the sense in- 
tended by the Greek writer, for the reason that a 
figure depends for its meaning upon the natural as- 
sociation of things, therefore in this instance we must 
look to the habits and associations of the shark, and 
not to those of the duck. It is with a fish, not with 
a bird that we now have to do. The stewards, being 
no longer such, but sharks, were put permanently 
out of their stewardship, and were made to stay 
permanently where they as sharks belonged ; namely, 
in the water, their element. 

" In his description of Mess Lethierry, Victor Hugo 
says : i At bottom, however, he was simply a sailor. 
The water was his element ; he used to say that he lived 
with the fish when really at home.'" — Toilers of the 
Sea, pt. 1, bk. II, ch. i, p. 38. 

The habit of the duck is to go to and from the 
water, remaining permanently neither upon land nor 
in water: 



ii 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 113 

Soldier. 

noble emperor, do not fight by sea; 
Trust not to rotten planks : Let the Egyptians 
And the Phenicians go a-ducking; we 
Have been used to conquer standing on the earth." 
— Antony and Cleopatra, act III, sc. 7. 

With the verb "duck" there is always associated 
the idea of (1) quick motion, and (2) limited time: 

' ' I can still hear the shells from fort and ships go 
shrieking by, causing that strange, self-pitying desire 
to duck into safety." — The New Voice, July 1, 1899, 
p. 15. 

" I saw three men swimming, and trying to get 
away from the burning pier," said Voss. " The hair 
of one of them was on fire. He ducked his head to put 
it out. "When he came up he shouted; ' Help, help' 
in German." — St. Joseph Daily News, July 2, 1900. 

LIU. 

The device by which Philip of Macedon, when 
in the wrestling-school with Menegetes, put off pay- 
ing his soldiers : 

" Philip not having it, came forward streaming 
with sweat . . . and smiling on them said: You 
say justly, fellow-soldiers, but indeed for this purpose I 
am myself now anointed against the barbarian, in order 
that I may many times over repay you thanks. Saying 
this he ran and threw himself into the swimming-bath, 
and the Macedonians laughed. Philip did not give 
over through-baptizing Sia/SaTr-r^ei/os (' Dipping Iisr A 
8 



114 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

Match/ Conant) with the paneratist, and sprink- 
ling water in the face until the soldiers wearied out 
dispersed." — Polyaenus, Stratagems, bk. IV, ch. 2, 6. 

LIV. 

Describing the class of persons whom Aristogei- 
ton was in the habit of harassing by false accusations 
and extortion, he said : 

"Not the public orators, for these know how to 
through-baptize diapairrifea-ecu (< To Play The Dip- 
ping Match,' Conant) with him, but private persons, 
and the inexperienced/ 5 — Demosthenes, Against Aris- 
togeiton, Oration, 1, 5. 

In a note on quotation No. LIXI, Conant said: 

" This was the dipping-match or game of dipping 
each other, each party striying to prove his superior 
strength and agility by putting the other under water, 
and also by splashing it in his face, till he was deprived 
of breath." 

As to the aim of the contestants the note is cor- 
rect. The use of diabaptidsomenos is to be ac- 
counted for because, first, both contestants were in 
water as long as the game lasted; second, the one 
gaining the advantage would hold the other under 
water as long as he could, or until he acknowledged 
defeat. This is baptizing, not dipping. The idea is 
(1) trying to down one another in water; sousing 
thoroughly; (2) trying to down another by abuse. 



Baptizing — Biblical ai*d Classical. 115 

In other words, "throughmersing" was floundering 
in water; joking or covering one another with op- 
probious epithets. 

" The herdsmen were bathing, or rather like 
crocodiles, floundering about in the ponds of water." 
— Durbin, Observations in the East, Vol. I, p. 28. 
Prime, Tent Life in Holy Land, p. 212. Century 
Magazine^ Oct., 1898, p. 925. 

LV. 

" A certain man having a grudge against a fox for 
some mischief done by her, after getting her into his 
power, contrived a long time how to punish her ; and 
having steeped p<nrTL<ras tow in oil, he bound it to her 
tail and set fire to it. 5 ' — iEsopic Fables, Man and the 
Fox. 

"We have some difficulty, said a scientific lec- 
turer, with iron dyes, but the most troublesome of all 
are Turkey red rags. See me dip this rag into my 
solution. Its red is paler but still strong. If I steep 
it long enough to efface the color entirely, the fiber 
will be destroyed."— The Classmate, July 28, 1900, 

Said of the peasants of the Isere Var and Alps : 

"They have no candles, and burn resinous logs 
and pieces of rope steeped in pitch ,? — Hugo, Les Miser 
ables, chap, iv, p. 10. 

Steep, in Old English meant, to de deep set in, or 
set in deep, "his eyen steep." — Chaucer, Canterbury 
Tales, Prologue, line 201. 



116 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

Steep is Used, as was Bapto, in the Sense, to 
Dye, to Stain. 

" Steep* d in the colors of their trade." — Macbeth, 
act II, sc. 3. " What, Paris too, and steep' dm. blood.'* 
■ — Borneo and Juliet, act V, sc. 3. 

" A napkin steep' d in the harmless blood." — 3 King 
Henry VI, act I, sc. 4, and II, 1. Said Queen Margaret, 
" 1 stained this napkin;" York in recounting the sorry 
deed, used the words dip and stain (act I, sc. 4), and a 
messenger iterating it to Kichard, used steep (act II, 
sc. I). 

Steep is Used, as was Baptidso, in the Sense, to 
Submerge, Immeese. 
" The guttered rocks, and congregated sands — 
Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel." 

—Othello, act II, sc. 1. 
" Have steep' d their galls in honey." — Henry V, 
act II, sc. 2. " Steep' d me in poverty to the very lips." 
—Oth., IV, 2. "And yet are steep'd in favors."— 
Cym., V, 4. "With tongue in venom steep'd."— 
Ham., II, 2. " Four days will quickly steep themselves 
in nights."— Midsummer ISPs. D,, I, 1. "And steep 
our senses in forgetfulness. '— 2, Henry IV, III, 1. 

I. VI. 

The following text exhibits what some have 
thought to be a repetition, and for this reason Dr. 
Conant dropt seven words of the original Greek, and 
accordingly the same number of English equivalents 
from his translation : 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 117 

"Those, therefore, who were defiled by the dead 
body, casting a little of the ashes into a fountain and 
Dipping (Baptizing) a hyssop-branch, they 
sprinkled, on the third and seventh of the thirty days." 
— Baptizein, p. 33, ex. 69. 

William Whiston, likewise "at sea" as to the exact 
meaning of the original, rendered it thus : 

" When, therefore, any persons were defiled by a 
dead body, they put a little of these ashes into spring 
water, with hyssop, and dipping part of these ashes in 
it, they sprinkled, etc." 

The Greek Text. 

" Totfs o$v airb veicpov /Ae/j.iacrfj.e'vovs, rijs rtcppas 6\tyov els 7T7]yr)v 
iviivres /cat taawrrov, (3 air tig acre's re Kaljrijs rttppas Tafrnqs els irTiyfy, 
%l>f)aivov Tplry re /cat e^do/irj tQv riixepGiv" 

" Therefore those who were defiled from a dead 
body, having placed a small quantity of ashes into 
spring water, and hyssop—and also having baptized 
(steeped) these ashes into spring water— they sprinkled 
on the third and also seventh of the days." — Josephus, 
Ant., bk. IV, ch. iv, 6. 

A very important factor of the text is te kai, of 
which Winer has written: 

" In the New Testament, as well as in Greek 
authors we find that re /cat indicated an addition, com- 
plement, explanation; something flowing from what 
precedes, or even its details, as Acts ii, 33, 37; iv, 33, 
etc. Connection in the form of correlation takes 



118 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

place when two words or clauses are, by means of 
kclI Kai or re /cat, joined as corresponding to each other/' 
—Grammar of N". T. Diction (Masson's trans.) pp. 
454, 459; (Thayer's trans.) pp. 439, 435. 

Te-Kai. 

""AXAws re Kai and especially when they must en- 
dure ; Trepi &v etwoL re /cat -Kparreiv concerning what he had 

Said, and also to do ; /cat poTJaoi re /cat etTretV t/cai>urraroj> and also 
to Speak What is proper ; d>rt/cpi> 8* eriSevTO rod pwfxov olvox&cu 

re /cat <£ic£\at hard by this altar lay the basins and also the 
vials."— Josephus, Ant. II, vi, 10; III, i, 4;III, ii, 3; 
III, yii, 8. 

"nawf re Kai \ao?<ri with thy children, and the people; 
vvkt€$ re /cat yjfxipa e'/c At6s daiv nights and also days are 
from Jove."— Homer, Odys., bk, XIII, 62;bk. XIV, 
20. 

In translating baptisantes "dipping/' Dr. Conant 
went directly contrary to the meaning of that word, 
and also ignored the force of eVuVres from Ivi-qixi 
"to send in or into; to put in; implant; to plunge 
into; to throw in/' & term specifically employed of 
the ashes, inclusively of the hyssop. 

The desire of Josephus for brevity is seen in the 
fact that he has omitted to mention him who should 
sprinkle the water upon the unclean; the self-wash- 
ing of the sprinkler ; that the period of uncleanness 
expired at eventide. This desire for brevity led him 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 119 

to place together in one brief statement two trans- 
actions which were disconnected by an ever varying 
interval of time; namely, (1) the steeping of the 
ashes, and (2) the sprinkling of the unclean. The 
explanatory clause was necessary to make clear to 
those not acquainted with Jewish customs, that the 
ashes were thoroughly dissolved in water, and later 
on were sprinkled upon the unclean person, not as 
ashes, but as water with ashes in solution — "the 
water of separation :" 

" And for an unclean person they shall take of the 
ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and 
running water shall be put thereto in a vessel : 2 and a 
clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water 
and sprinkle upon the . . . unclean on the third 
and seventh day. "—Num. xix, 17, 19. 

The accuracy of our translation is corroborated 
by Philo, the Jewish writer, and also by the Latin 
version : 

" Moses does this philosophically, for most others 
are sprinkled with unmixed water, some with sea or 
river water, others with water drawn from the fountains. 
But Moses employed ashes for this purpose. Then as 



2 Josephus represented the custom of the Beni Israel while in 
the desert when he wrote "into spring water," for " irtryn denoted 
1 living ' or constantly running water, in opposition to standing or 
stagnant pools, whether it issues immediately from the ground, or 
from the bottom of a well." 

The words of the English Version " in a vessel " represent later 
usage. 



120 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

to the manner, they put them into a vessel, pour on 
water, then moisten branches of hyssop with the 
mixture, then sprinkle it upon those who are to be 
purified." 

" Paulum igitur hujus cineris in f ontem immittentes 
cum hyssopi ramulo, ejusdemque cineris aliquantulum 
in aquam immergentes, a mortuo pollutos die tertia et 
septima puri aliqui conspergebant." 

lvii. 

" He marched in Carmania for seven days in a kind 
of Bacchanalian procession. Upon his chariot was 
placed a lofty platform, where he and his principal 
friends revelled day and night. This carriage was 
followed by many others ... In these were the 
rest of the king's friends and generals, crowned with 
flowers, and exhilarated with wine. In this whole 
company there was not to be seen a buckler, a helmet, 
or a spear; but, instead of them cups, flagons, and 
goblets. These the soldiers dipped in huge vessels of 
wine, and drank to each other." — Langhorne's Plu- 
tarch's Lives, (Alexander) vol. Ill, pp. 306-7. 

44 Thou wouldst not have seen a buckler, or a 
helmet, or a pike; but the soldiers along the whole 
way, Dipping (Baptizing) with cups and horns, 
and goblets from great wine-jars and mixing-bowls,* 
were drinking to one another." 

44 The reading pairTifrvTes has been doubted on 
account of the unusual construction with £k iridw, but 



* Large bowls for mixing wine and water, into which the drink - 
ing-cups were dipped. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 121 

(as suggested by Coray, in loc.) a part of the action is 
put for the whole (synecdoche), as one must first dip 
the vessel in order to fill it." — Conant, Baptizein, pp. 
11, 12, ex. 25. 

" BaTTT^w. 2. to draw wine by dipping the cup in 
the bowl."— Plut. Alex, 67 ; cf . pd*™ l, 3." Liddell and 
Scott's Lexicon. 

1. The Conant rendering does not give the fine 
pictorial contrast made by Plutarch between the ab- 
sence of glittering shield, helmet, and pike, and the 
presence and prominence of bowls, horns, and drink- 
ing cups. Plutarch made a word picture, Conant 
veiled it. 

2. This translation does not follow the order of 
the Greek text, and the word "with" is supplied. 

3. This rendering is not in accord with Conant's 
translations of others of the same class. If the 
guests at the philosopher's banquet were "whelmed 
with undiluted wine," and if one cup thereof had a 
"whelming" effect on the servant girl, why should 
not many cups have had the same effect upon the sol- 
diers of Alexander ? 

Under the theory that everything baptized was 
sunk into a fluid, really or figuratively, the construc- 
tion /?a7rri£ovT£s Ik ttiQw presented difficulties, hence 
as a result we have the mistranslations of the 
Langhorne Brothers and Conant, and the incorrect 



122 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

definition of Liddell and Scott. With the fact estab- 
lished that /JaTrr^co was used in the sense to intoxi- 
cate, independent of modality and associations with 
water, there is no difficulty in the text. The source 
from which the soldiery were baptizing (intoxicat- 
ing) themselves, was the content of large wine- jars 
and mixing-vessels, and is properly put in the geni- 
tive case, e. g. , Ad ? U rptTroSo? fxeyaXoTo ' ' washed me 
from the large tripod, " Odys., X, 361 ; /Wrao-as Ik tov 
huirvov fxiprj ' i took portions from his supper, ' ' dwo i/c/c- 
pov fxe/jLiacrfxivovs defiled from a dead body, — Josephus, 
Ant. bk. , VII, chap, vii, 1 ; and IV, iv, 6. 

" Thou wouldest not have seen a buckler, or a 
helmet, or a pike; but cups and horns and goblets; 
along the whole way the soldiers getting drunk pairri 
frvres from great wine-jars and mixing-vessels, drink- 
ing to one another."— Plutarch, Life of Alexander, 67. 

"'The commons of England' went from place to 
place, committing all sorts of excesses, burning houses 
and colleges, opening the prisons, getting very drunk 
on the wine for which they ransacked the cellars of 
castles and mansions."— Popular Educator, Vol. I, p. 
158, Eising of the Laborers. 

"And the son of Ader was drinking, getting 
drunk irlvw, ftedfav in Sokchoth, himself and the kings 
. . . his allies." — 3 Kings, xxi, 16. (Eng. Ver., 
1 Kings xx, 16.) 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 123 

In conclusion we ask, Did the Greeks practice the 
uncleanly custom of dipping vessels from which every 
one drank into their larger vessels ? The testimony 
of Homer is to the contrary : 

"Then having drawn wine from the goblet, they 
poured it into the cups." " And the cup-bearer draw- 
ing wine from the bowl, carries it and pours it into 
the cups."— Iliad, bk. Ill, 294-6 3 Odys., Ill, 471; 
IX, 9. 

By a reference to Chapter IV of this work, the 
reader will find Jewett quoted as saying: 

" Bawrifr (baptizo) in the whole history of the 
Greek language has but one meaning. It signifies to 
dip, or immerse, and never has any other meaning." 

We may now lay down this thesis, Baptidso its* 

THE WHOLE HISTORY OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE HAS 
SEVERAL MEANINGS. It NEVER SIGNIFIES DIP, BUT 
ALWAYS HAS SOME OTHER MEANING. 



Chapter XIII. 

BAPTIDSO m FIGUEATIVE USE. 

" I here repeat the remark, that in its literal and 
proper sense paTrrifa never means anything but to im- 
merse, dip or plunge; and when used in a figurative 
application, the figure entirely depends for its force 
and beauty, on the primary idea of immersion or 
plunging. "— Jewett, Mode and Subjects of Baptism, 
p. 17. 

" The idea of a total submergence lies at the basis 
of these metaphorical uses. In a metaphorical sense 
it is often used absolutely, meaning to whelm in (or 
with) ruin, troubles, . . . perplexity, intoxication. 
That in this absolute use, the literal image on which 
the usage is founded was not lost from view, is 
evident from Ex. 124: 'You are not at leisure, but 
are overwhelmed, and the multitude of other affairs 
holds you in subjection 9 (more literally) has brought 
you under itself; with which compare Ex. 95." — 
Oonant, Baptizein, sec. Ill, p. 91. 

Mode ok Influence, Which? 

The fact we are now directly in search of, is not 

as to whether the word baptidso in figurative use is 

founded on its literal or primary use, for of that 

there can be no doubt nor denial. Our inquiry is as 

124 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 125 

to whether in its figurative use the chief fact in im- 
mediate and near view is mode or is it influence ? 
We can not afford to lose sight of the datum that 
baptidso does not derive its power to express destruc- 
tion of life«, and ruin and loss of property, simply 
because the persons or things were put into and cov- 
ered by water, but because they were allowed or made 
to remain a long time therein, and in some instances 
were irrecoverable because sunk to great depths. 
Those objects which were injured and lost by being 
baptized (in classic sense) were in many instances 
not injured nor lost by being dipt. 

Influence. 

The fact for which we contend is, that all Greek 

writers, when employing baptidso in a figurative 

sense, used it of that which most potently influenced 

human life and interests; and this was granted and 

taught by Conant when he wrote that 

" The word immerse described to every English 
mind the same clearly marked, corporeal act as is ex- 
pressed by the Greek word (baptizein), and was used 
metaphorically with the same applications. We speak 
of a man as immersed in calamities, in debt, in igno- 
rance, in poverty, in cares, etc., always with the 
idea of totality, of being wholly under the 
dominion of these states or influences." — bap- 
tizein, p. 162. 



126 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

The idea of potent influence is so wrapped up in 
the word, and the idea of the mere mode of operation 
is so secondary and unimportant, that English trans- 
lators have not in every instance used words which 
have water associations, but those which have orig- 
inated in an entirely unlike original transaction; 
e. g.: 

LVIII. 

" Indeed it can hardly be supposed that he would 
have appointed Otho heir even to his private patrimony, 
when he knew how expensive and profuse he was, and 
that he was loaded pepa.irTury.4vov with a debt of five 
millions of drachmas." — Langhorne's Plutarch's Lives, 
Galba, vol. IV, p. 393. 

LIX. 

" These very men, besides the seditions they raised, 
were otherwise the direct cause of the city's destruction 
ipdirTurav. "— Whiston's Josephus, Wars of the Jews, bk. 
IV, ch. iii, 3. 

There is an example of the same thing in Co- 
nant's own work : 

LX. 

" Libanius. Memorial to the king on the neglect 
and abuse of the imprisoned. Answering the plea, 
that the magistrates were encumbered with official 
business, and had no time for attention to those 
imprisoned or held for trial, he says: s But you do not 
allege this want of leisure to those who give sumptuous 
banquets, nor that you could not spend so much of the 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 127 

day drinking at the table; . . . but if one asks 
your judgment of any of the greater matters, you are 
not at leisure but, are Overwhelmed (Baptized) 
pairrlfti, and the multitude of other affairs, holds you in 
subjection; as if those affairs of which you speak, give 
place to wine-cups, but grudge to some their safety.' *' 
— Baptizein, p. 60, ex. 24. 

Why did he use the word encumbered, if the idea 
of sinking into water had been so pictorially con- 
veyed by Libanius in the word fiairTiZy? Why not 
sunk, immersed in, or swamped with official busi- 
ness ? 

All that can be said against translating a word 
by one which in literal use has dissimilar associations 
is, that in so doing the reader has not the means of 
going back to the original literal image upon which 
the foreign word, when used figuratively, is founded. 
So far as the idea of a great influence is concerned, 
the sense may be given by any one of ten, or even 
of more words found in common use ; e. g. : 

(€ It was at Oxford that young Mr. Lyell was inoc- 
ulated by the University reader (Buckland) with that 
interest in geology which not only made Lyell the 
greatest naturalist of his day, but led to the wonderful 
developments associated with Darwin's name. Think 
then, of what personal influence meant to science . . . 
when these two teachers "baptized those young men with 
their own passion." — Central Christian Advocate, Per- 
sonal Influence. 



128 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

There is really no difference between "dissolved 
in tears/' a bathed in tears/' "sunk in tears/'' 
"drowned in tears/' and other metaphoric forms, be- 
yond the fact that each is builded upon a different 
original transaction. In all of these statements we 
simply get a view of a great influence which produces 
grief, and of course its necessary manifestation. 

An Author's Language Determines that to 
which Prominence is Given. 

It is not necessary to assert that Greek authors 
when using baptidso in a figurative sense stopped 
to consider whether they had in mind the sinking 
of a person or thing in water, or tarried to ask them- 
selves whether their thought was of the mighty influ- 
ence of one thing upon another; but we can in truth 
lay down this rule: If a writer (Greek or English) 
had in mind the image of a thing sinking, then his 
words would presumably suggest it to his readers 
(cf. Greek Quotation No. XXIII) ; while on the 
other hand if he had in mind one thing exerting 
itself powerfully upon another, his words would sug- 
gest instrumentality — the one thing as an active in- 
strument influencing; that is, injuring or assisting 
the other (see Greek Quotations LVIII, LIX, LX). 



Baptizing — Biblical, and Classical. 129 

The Image and the Idea of Influence can Go 
Together. 

It does not affect the result we aim at in this 
inquiry to know that some writers did not lose from 
view "the literal image (or modality of the act) on 
which the usage is founded," for it is sufficient for 
us to know that a writer could have in mind "the 
literal image" — could see the man or ship sinking — 
and at the same time make most prominent the fact 
of the great influence exerted thereupon by the merg- 
ing element or instrument; e. g.: 

lxi. 
Gregory of ]STazianzus, when urging his hearers 
not to defer their baptism till they should be bur- 
dened with more sins to be forgiven, said: 

"Nor let us take more lading than we are able to 
carry ; that we may not be sunk pavrureQfjLep vessel and 
men, and make shipwreck of the grace, losing all 
because we hoped for more-" — Discourse xl, 11. 

LXII. 

The words of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, when 
they urged Josephus not to leave the besieged city: 

"And that it did not become him, either to fly 
from enemies, or to abandon friends; nor to leap off, 
as from a ship overtaken by a storm, into which he 
9 



130 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

had entered in fine weather; that he would himself 
overwhelm impairTifav the city, as no one would longer 
dare to make resistance to the enemy, when he was 
gone through whom their courage was sustained." — 
"Wars of the Jews, bk. Ill, ch. vii, 15. 

" Overwhelm, the metaphor is derived from the 
effect of a sudden blast, bearing down upon (over) the 
shattered vessel, and whelming it in the deep," — Bap- 
tizein, p. 48. 

" The old idea, that the singular depression in the 
Jordan valley, now filled by the Dead Sea, was formed 
at the time of the destruction of the cities, and that 
they were overwhelmed beneath its water, has long been 
exploded." — Deane, Abraham: His Life and Times, 
p. 111. 

The Origin of Figurative Meanings of Words. 
The figurative meanings of verbs do not as a rule 
grow out of the modality of the original act upon 
which they are founded, but out of those effects and 
concomitants which attended that original act. Upon 
the theory — that writers when using words in a figu- 
rative sense keep in near view the modality of the 
original act described by the same word in literal 
use — it would be next to impossible that such uses 
as are found in the quotations subjoined could have 
originated. Having in mind nothing more than the 
image of a person bathing, it would be committing 
a falsehood to say "bathed in tears;" but marking 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 131 

only the greatest influence of one thing upon an- 
other, such an utterance is proper. 

Illustrated by the Word "Drown." 
"Drown, to kill by suffocation through mersion 
in water or other liquid." 

1 
" But woe betide the cruel guile 
That drowned in blood the morning smile." 

— Lady of the Lake, canto IV, 22. 

2 

' r I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze 
But that this folly drowns it." 

— Hamlet, act IV, sc. 7. 
3 

" And the beasts and the birds, and the insects were 
drowned 

In an ocean of dreams without a sound." 

— Shelley, The Sensitive Plant, pt. I, stan. 26. 

4 
"Keep that bearing cool — smother it in oil, 
drown it in water! Keep it cool or the game 's up.' ; — 
Arthur Warren, in Engineering Magazine, 

5 
" Nor from intemperance are we to drain the cup 
at a draught; nor besprinkle the chin . . . while 
gulping down all the liquor at once— our face all 
but filling the bowl, and droivned in it." — Clement 
of Alexandria, Instructor, bk. II, chap, ii. 



132 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

6 
" The tenor is drowned by your unruly bass." 

Two Gentlemen of Verona, act i, sc. 2. 

7 
" So in the Lethe of thy angry soul 
Thou droion the sad remembrance of those wrongs 
Which thou supposest I have done to thee." 

— Eichard III, Act IV, sc. 2. 

8 
" Let's to supper; come, and drown consideration." 
— Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV, sc. 2. 

9 

" Coleridge's personal sufferings were hidden and 
concealed ... by the extraordinary power he had 
of apparently overcoming and droivning them at times 
in fervid colloquy." — The Christian Advocate, Health. 

We find in the foregoing quotations a figurative 
usage which has grown out of certain concomitants 
of the original act ; namely, the extinguishing of one 
thing by another, Nos. 1, 2, and 9 ; stillness and lack 
of motion, No 3 ; total covering, Nos. 4 and 5 ; the 
greater swallowing up the lesser, No. 6 ; cessation of 
the active powers of memory, Nos. 7 and 8. 

The original fact upon which the figurative word 
or phrase is builded dims with much use, and the 
figure is merged into the several meanings which the 
word takes to itself — meanings which are so fully 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 133 

understood that the mind of the writer or reader does 
not and needs not to recall the figure underlying 
them. We hear one speak of another as being "lost 
in thought/' and as we listen we think only of the 
intense absorption of the person spoken of; no view 
of pathless desert, heavily wooded forest, or leagues 
of sandy hills of unvarying sameness comes up before 
us. One writes of another as being "deep in 
thought ;" but how few there are who pause to think 
of yawning chasm, deep pit, or precipitous shaft ? 



Chapter XIV. 

BAPTIDSO USED OF INTOXICATION. 

Kule V. 
When a Greek writer wished to express a 
very powerful physical influence exerted by 
intoxicants upon those who drank thereof, he 
used the word baptidso. 

A very strong corroboration of the above rule is, 
we find baptidso used in marked contrast with the 
word ai<poO(x>pa^ akrothoraks, slightly drunk, the ex- 
tremity of drunkenness being conveyed by baptidso. 

LXIII. 

" And I know some who, when they become 
slightly intoxicated aKpodApaices before they are com- 
pletely baptized pairTureijvai provide by contribution and 
tickets a carousal for the morrow; regarding the hope 
of the future revel as part of the present festivity."— 
Philo, On the Contemplative Life. 

LXIV. 

" For the slightly intoxicated AKpodupdicuv only the 
intellect is disturbed ; but the body is able to obey its 
impulses, being not yet baptized p^airrurfiivov^ — Plu- 
tarch, Banquet, bk. Ill, Question 8. 

134 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 135 

At a very early time it was seen that baptidso — 
not hedged about with the limitations of bapto, being 
unlimited as to manner, time of continuance, extent 
or depth — would express not only the act by which 
the person was placed in another environment, but 
in addition the influence exerted upon the same. 
They saw that the influence described by baptidso 
would, as a rule, be larger than that intimated by 
bapto, for the reason that the object baptized being 
longer in its environment came under a greater influ- 
ence. Dr. Dale has well said : 

" The act of dipping is emphatically one of limita- 
tions — limitation of force, limitation of extent of 
entrance into the element, limitation of time of con- 
tinuance within the element, and, by consequence, 
limitation of influence/' 

There is no room to doubt that because of the 
presence, in many transactions which baptidso de- 
scribes, of unlimited force, extent, and continuance, 
the long misunderstood word was selected to describe 
drunkenness, for it was but a step from using bap- 
tidso of water which exerted a powerful influence, 
to its use of a potent drug or intoxicant which ex- 
erted a powerful influence. 

It was used of intoxication at a very early time; 
e. g., Plato, B. C. 428-347, and Evenus of Paros, 



136 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

B. 0. 500 or 250. Indeed, there are only two sen- 
tences containing baptidso which have come down to 
us from an earlier date ; namely, those from Pindar 
and Alcibiades. 

LXV. 

" Therefore I beseech thee, before thou art fully 
baptized paTrrKreijvai by this drunkenness ixid-qs to return 
to soberness, and to arouse, and thrust off the satanic 
debauch." — Chrysostom, Admonition 1, to Theodoras. 

lxvi. 

" A servant-girl describing the effect of a cup of 
wine given to her by her master, said, ' Then baptizing 
pairriaas (intoxicating) powerfully, he set me free. 5 " — 
Aristophon, (Athen., Philosophers' Banquet, bk. IX, 
ch. 44). 

LXVII. 

" And Thebe, learning the purpose, gave daggers to 
the brothers and urged them to be ready for the 
slaughter ; and having made Alexander drunk ^awTtaaaa 
with much wine and put him to sleep, she sends out 
the guards of the bed-chamber . . . and called 
the brothers to the deed." — Conon, Narration L. 

LXVIII. 

"Lucian when writing of the fabled fountain of 
Silenus, and of its effect on the old men who drank of 
it, said, ' When an old man drinks, and Silenus takes 
possession of him, immediately he is mute, for some 
time, and seems like one heavy-headed and baptized 
pepaTTTHTfAhip (drunk).' " — Bacchus, VII. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 137 

Only the two words intoxicate, drunk, have been 
used as the English equivalents of baptidso when that 
word was used of intoxication, and for the reason 
that when it was used thus both writer and reader 
were so well accustomed to this use and meaning, 
that it was not at all necessary to recall the associ- 
ations thereof, when in accord with its earliest use 
it was applied to the sinking of vessels and the 
drowning of animals. 

No argument is needed to prove that the Greeks 
when using baptidso of intoxication did not as a rule 
think of the drunken person as being sunk, immersed, 
or plunged into the intoxicant, but the rather they 
thought of him as feeling its powerful effects — as 
being drunk. 

That we find references to a watery environ- 
ment — as in quotation JSTo. xxiii in connection with 
a mention of drunkenness — is not a proof that every 
writer and reader, as a rule, connected the two to- 
gether, but is to be accounted for by the law of the 
association of ideas, and the by no means obscure 
fact that some few writers habitually think back to 
the original action or fact upon which all forms of 
speech are builded. Again we must bear in mind 
that baptidso was daily being used in its other senses 
and associations, hence it is not remarkable if we 



138 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

do find the word used occasionally by writers who 
bring into prominence those diverse associations, as 
in quotation xxiii. 

When we use the word "drown" of drunkenness, 
the uppermost thought in our minds is of its mighty 
influence; the idea of the mode by which drowning 
is usually effected may be altogether out of our view. 

In addition to the idea of being covered for a 
long time with water, we must add the idea of being 
affected by it, a use and meaning following close 
upon the other. This latter use caused baptidso to 
be used of intoxication, for therein the idea of cover- 
ing can not be present, since the fact is not present. 
The word which suggests influence by water can with 
ease be transferred to convey the fact of influence 
exerted by intoxicants, the drink being in the man. 

If necessary, it were as easy to prove that fullest 
influence is as often found attaching to baptidso as 
is fullest covering, — to baptize a sword was equal to 
taking a human life; to baptize a ship was equal to 
destroying it; to baptize a man was to kill him. 

Diffebent Usage of Immerse and Baptidso. 
-No little confusion has been wrought by the fact 
that some writers on this subject have treated cer- 
tain words as being exactly the same in meaning, 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 139 

and having exactly the same usage as other words in 
another language. For instance Conant said that he 

"Selected Immeese for use in his Kevision, as a 
word most nearly resembling the original word in the 
extent of its application. . . It is used metaphoric- 
ally with the same applications. We speak of a man 
as immersed in calamities, in debt, in ignorance, in 
poverty, in cares, etc. . . In all these applications, 
like the Greek word, through constant use in the 
literal sense, it suggests the clear image of the act on 
which they all are founded." — Baptizein, p. 162. 

Conant stated a plain truth when he wrote : "We 
speak of a man as immersed in calamities, in debt, 
in ignorance, etc. ;" but he quite overlooked the fact 
that in a total of seventy-two examples of baptidso 
in tropical use, there are ten instances of wo with 
the genitive, five simple genitive, and twenty-three 
of the instrumental dative. 'Ev— in the classics a 
locative — occurs both compounded and uncom- 
pounded only six times, and d$ even less frequently, 
therefore the idea of one thing being in another is 
not so often present with baptidso in tropical use as 
it is with immerse. 

It is greatly to the credit of Dr. Conant that he, 
as a rule, reflected in his translations these contents 
of the originals, for in sixteen instances he used 
"by" and in twelve "with" The reader can readily 



140 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

see that while he was, as a rule, true in his trans- 
lations to the originals, yet he could himself be de- 
ceived and lead others away from the exact facts, 
by attributing to baptidso that which was true of 
immerse in tropical use, almost without an excep- 
tion, but was true of baptidso in like use, in only a 
minority of instances. 

lxix. 
" Such as was Job, neither baptized ly poverty 
vTTOTijs wevias (3olwti£6jx€vos nor elated by riches,"— Chrysos- 
tom, On Psalm xlviii., 17. (xlix, 16). 

LXX. 

" What so great wrong have we done, as in a few 
days to be baptized jScwrrur^wu with such a multitude of 
evils."— Achilles Tatius, Story of Leu. and Clit., bk. 
Ill, ch. ix. 

LXXI. 

"But when he does not continue happy, baptized 
paKTHTdds either with diseases ^o-ots, or with arts r^x^« of 
Magians."— Plotinus, Ennead I, bk. IV, On Happi- 
ness, sec. 9. 

LXXII. 

"The use of wine when too freely indulged in: 
' Baptizes pawrlfa by sleep ifa-wp neighbor to death.'"— 
Evenos of Paros, Epigram XV. 



Chapter XV. 

DOES BAPTIDSO RETAIN ITS CLASSIC IM- 
PORT IN THE SEPTUAGINT? 

The assertion of dippers is that baptidso carries 
with it its classic import into the Septuagint: 

" The word Baptizein during the whole existence 
of the Greek as a spoken language, had a perfectly 
defined and unvarying import. . . . By analogy it 
expressed the coming into a new state of life or expe* 
rience, in which one was as it were enclosed and 
swallowed up, so that temporarily or permanently, he 
belonged wholly to it. . , . Whenever the idea of 
total submergence was to be expressed, whether literally 
or metaphorically, this was the word which first 
presented itself. . . . The relation in which it was 
used, associated with it for the time being, the ideas 
peculiar to that relation ; but the word itself, protected 
by the daily and hourly repetition in common life of 
the act which it described, retained its primary 
meaning and force unchanged. It was this familiar 
term . . . which our Savior employed when 
prescribing the initiatory rite of his Church. The 
claim, that He used it with any other meaning than 
that which has been exhibited in this treatise, originated 
in ignorance of the literature of the word." — Baptizein, 
sec. IX, pp. 158-160. 

141 



142 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

During the Wilkes-Ditzler debate at Louisville, 
Kentucky, in December, 1870, Dr. Ditzler affirmed 
that : 

" "While baptidso, baptisma, and baptismos, the 
words applied to baptism in the Bible, are never used 
in classic Greek for a religious purpose, or in a 
religious sense, they are never used in the Bible and 
Apocrypha, nor in the Septuagint Greek (Greek of 
the Old Testament), in any but a strictly religious 
sense." 

To this Elder Wilkes replied: 

" Now in regard to baptizo ; suppose my friend 
should assert that this word is used in a different sense 
in the New Testament Greek, from that in which it is 
used in classic Greek, would it not be incumbent on 
him to show it? . The classic argument is, in 

this case on my side, and he feels the necessity of 
proving that the sacred use is different from the 
classical use, But did he prove it in regard to baptizo?" 
—The Wilkes-Ditzler Debate, pp. 405, 413. 

Tell a man that a word means but one thing, 
and he will look only for that meaning, and will 
usually find just what he looks for, unless he has 
been told what he of himself can readily see is wrong. 
If his prejudices are in accord with the supposed 
meaning, then it will be impossible for him to see 
any other, even though it obtrudes itself. A man 
who had been told with much emphasis that baptidso 
had but one meaning in all Greek literature ; namely, 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 143 

"to dip or immerse/' reading for himself found that 
some persons were baptized by being put into the 
drink (water), while others were baptized by having 
the drink (intoxicant) put into them, came to the 
conclusion that he had been misled. 

Conant's words, "So that temporarily he belonged 
wholly to it," will not bear testing by the facts we 
have thus far found. It was because of a long time 
intusposition that those disastrous effects described 
by baptidso were secured. Only by ignoring the idea 
of long time, usually found attaching to baptidso, 
was this scholarly man enabled to translate it in ten 
instances by its antonym dip, and to treat dip and 
immerse as synonymous terms. 

The influence of "the daily and hourly repetition 
in common life of the act which" classic baptidso de- 
scribed, in connection with the repetition in Chris- 
tian ritual of the act which Biblical baptidso de- 
scribed, is to-day seen in the writings of the Church 
Fathers, and in the contention now going forward 
as to the mode in which the Christian water rite 
should be administered. If the Fathers had been 
careful to maintain the usage of the New Testa- 
ment — which was never to use the word in its literal 
secular sense — the long baptismal controversy would 
perhaps have had no existence. 



144 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

Baptidso in the Septuagint. 
The Septuagint and the Apocrapha each furnish 
us with two examples of the use of baptidso. The 
first time we meet with the word in a Biblical en- 
vironment we are struck with its peculiar use, and 
we realize that it is not being used by native Greeks. 
The translators make us feel that we are upon sacred 
ground, yea, they emphasize this fact by spurning 
the word bapto and selecting baptidso. They do this 
discriminately, for they have before them the word 
tabal, the Hebrew synonym of Greek bapto, and 

English dip. 

1 
" And Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, Go 
and wash \ov<rai seven times in Jordan, and thy flesh 
shall return to thee, and thou shalt be cleansed. . . . 
And Naaman went down and baptized himself e^airrlaaTo 
in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of 
Elisha ; and his flesh returned to him as the flesh of a 
little child, and he was cleansed." — 4 Kings, v, 10-14. 

2 

" My heart wanders, and transgression baptizes 
/Sa?rr/fet me; my soul is occupied with fear." — Isaiah, 
xxi, 4. 

3 

" And the servants of Holof ernes brought her into 
the tent, and she slept till midnight; and she rose up 
toward the morning watch and sent to Holofernes, 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 145 

saying, c Let my lord now command that they suffer 
thy servant to go forth unto prayer.' And Holof ernes 
commanded his guards that they should not stay her — 
and she abode in the camp three days, and went out 
every night into the valley of Bethulia and baptized 
herself ipairrlfrTo at the fountain of water in the camp. 
And when she came up, she besought the Lord God of 
Israel to direct her way to the raising up of the children 
of His people. And she came in clean Kadapb and 
remained in the tent until she took her meat toward 
evening." — Judith XII, 5=9, Revised Version. 



"Baptizing himself pawrtfrnhos from a dead body 
and touching it again, what is he profited by the 
bath?" — Ecclesiasticus xxxiv, 2. 

The View of Conant, Wilkes, Cramf, and Pe- 

geum. 

"And Naaman went down and immersed (baptized) 
himself in the Jordan seven times." 

The sense is correctly given in the common Eng- 
lish Bible: 

" And dipped himself seven times in the Jordan." 
— Conant, Baptizein, sec. II, p. 83. 

" We have laptizo used here in the sense of dip." 
— Wilkes-Ditzler Debate, p. 479. 

et The prophet directed Naaman to go and wash in 
Jordan. Naaman determined to do it thoroughly, and 
' dipped himself seven times in Jordan.' That it was 
10 



146 Baptizing— Biblical and Classical. 

nothing less than dipping, the meaning of the Hebrew, 
as well as of the Greek word, clearly declares. No 
sophistry or special pleading can get rid of it." — J, M. 
Cramp, D. D , Catechism on Baptism, pp. 77, 78. 

The fact that Naaman's act was a dipping, is the 
determining datum upon which a writer of secular 
Greek decided that it ivas not a baptizing. That 
JTaaxnan was dipt is in itself a disproof of the theory 
that baptidso had an unvarying import during the 
whole existence of the Greek as a spoken language: 

Tabal. 

45 The Greek word baptizo which was used by the 
inspired writers to convey the command to baptize, 
occurs seventy-six times in the New Testament. Its 
classical meaning was dip, immerse, plunge, sink, 
overwhelm. . . . All learned men unite in asserting 
this to be the true, classical meaning of baptizo; but 
many of them are unwilling to admit that it is the 
Scriptural signification of the word. There are however, 
six instances in the Sacred Scriptures in which baptizo 
(baptize) and baptismos (baptism), are applied to the 
things of every-day life ; and therefore a careful exam- 
ination of these passages will enable us to ascertain the 
correct Scriptural meaning of the two Greek words. 

(1) 2 Kings v, 14, Septuagint (Greek) version: 
' { And Naaman went down and baptized himself in 
Jordan." Hebrew: " And he went down, and dipped 
himself in Jordan." The Hebrew word translated 
"dip" is taval. Gesenius, the author of the most 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 147 

celebrated Hebrew Lexicon, says, ' Taval — to dip, to 
dip in, to immerse.' Hence we find that Ptolemy's 
seventy-two Jewish translators selected baptize as the 
most suitable word by which they could render the 
Hebrew verb that signified dip or immerse" — Eobert 
Pegrum, Secular Baptism, pp. 2, 3. 

Note that both Gesenius and Pegrum use "im- 
merse" in the sense of "dip." 

If it had been the intention of the Seventy to 
give the correct sense of the modal Hebrew word 
tabal, they would have selected not baptidso, but 
bapto, since tabal was recognized as the equivalent 
of bapto, and in a total of sixteen instances was ren- 
dered by those translators — once moluno (Gen. xxxvii, 
31), once baptidso, and fourteen times bapto (see 
under Bapto, quotations l\ r os. V to VII ; and Appen- 
dix A, 1-7). Bapto in Dan. iv, 30 (Authorized Ver- 
sion, verse 33), and v, 21, is a translation of tseba; 
in Lev. xi, 32, of bo; in Psalm lxvii, 23 (English 
Version, Psalm lxviii, 23) of machats. 

That the Seventy did not give the common 

MODAL MEANING OF TaBAL IN THEIR TRANSLATION 

of 4 Kings v, 14, is proved by the fact that 

THE RENDERING IS CONTRARY TO THE RULE, AND 
STANDS OUT AS BEING EXCEPTIONAL AND UNIQUE. 

If we carefully examine the claim, that baptidso 
was in this case used in its classic sense, we shall 



148 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

find that Rule I, total covering, is fully met. Ac- 
cording to Rule II, any mode of intusposition will 
satisfy the requirements of baptidso, but directly the 
idea of immediate withdrawal is hinted, then it re- 
fuses to serve us, hence Rule II is not met. The 
demand of Rule III is not complied with in the act 
of JSTaaman, for he did not remain a long time, nor 
permanently, under water. Rule IV requires the 
largest physical influence to be wrought by the water 
itself, such as drowning, loss, etc., but in E~aaman's 
case the water exerted no natural influence upon him 
except "the putting away of the filth of the flesh." 
His cleansing from leprosy was the result of the 
direct miraculous interposition of Jehovah, and the 
dipping was the operation of his faith and obedience, 
and an adaptation of the ritual of the Mosaic law 
to meet the need of a Gentile, hence Rule IV, is also 
transgressed. 

Being Baptized from the Classic Greek Stand- 
point. 
If we are sincerely seeking for the truth, we can 
not afford to lose sight of the horror with which being 
baptized was viewed by the Greeks (see Greek Quo- 
tations IV, VI, LXI), nor ought we to forget that 
the threat to baptize another was one of terrible im- 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 149 

port (Greek Quotation Xo. 1). To be baptized was 
classed as being one of the greatest calamities that 
could befall either a city or a man (see Greek Quo- 
tation No. LIX). 

In Baptizein, p. 84, example 171, we are told 
that in the version of Symmachus the third verse of 
Psalm Ixviii (English Version, Psalm lxix, 2) reads: 

"I am baptized ^aTrriad-nv into bottomless depths." 

Opening the Septuagint we find that Psalm 
Ixviii, 2, reads: 

"I am stuck fast in deep mire, and there is no 
standing : I am come into the depths of the sea, and a 
storm has overwhelmed KaTawovTiG-e (drowned) me." 

Note.-" KaranovrLtu, katapontidso, to throw into the sea, plunge 
or drown therein." 

Baptidso Set Apaht to a Xobler Office. 

Absolutely nothing of this nature attaches to the 
act of baptizing as narrated in the Holy Scriptures, 
hence the only conclusion possible is that the word 
has taken on a new meaning and a new use. It has 
dropt its classic robes to put on a new garb ; it has 
stepped from the realm of the secular to that of the 
religious. 'New associations now cluster about it, for 
it has entered the service of Jehovah, and has been 
set apart to tell how men in obedience to Him purify 



150 Baptizing— Biblical and Classical. 

themselves. So marked is the difference in its mean- 
ing that though heretofore a dipt person was not 
baptized, now the baptizing act is performed by dip- 
ping, sprinkling, pouring, and washing. From the 
time the Seventy used baptidso of the dipping of 
jSTaaman to the present, in religious connections, it 
has been associated like dip with shallows and sur- 
faces; with the rivulet, the wayside well, and the 
trickling fountain; with the Temple and Christian 
laver; with the water-pot iBpta (John ii, 6), and 
with the hyssop-branch in the hands of a Jewish 
priest or other clean person. The literal classic 

MEANINGS OE BAPTIDSO NEVER PASSED OVER INTO 
THE SePTTJAGINT. 



Chapter XYI. 

THE USAGE OF THE SEPTUAGINT AND 

THAT OF THE GEEEK CLASSICS 

CONTKASTED. 

Where classic Greek writers would have 
used the word Baptidso, the Seventy studi- 
ously AVOIDED SO DOING, AND IN ITS STEAD EM- 
PLOYED OTHER WORDS MORE OR LESS SYNONYMOUS. 

We do not assert that Greek writers would invari- 
ably have used baptidso, but in all likelihood that 
word as often as any one of its synonyms. 

In the preceding chapter there is an example of 
this practice: Symmachus in his version of the 
Psalms used baptidso; the Seventy had used Tcata- 
pontidso. Aquila (see Chap, xxii, pp. 215, 216) 
used baptidso ; the Seventy bapto. 

1 

"And the water prevailed exceedingly upon the 
earth, and covered £k&\vP all the high mountains." — 
Gen. vii, 19, 20, 

Note.— Compare this with Greek quotation No. XX. 

2 
i 6 They were swallowed up KaTeirde^aap in the Eed 

Sea."— Exod. xv, 4. 

151 



152 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

" For as our ship was baptized /3a7rr«r0eVros in the 
Adriatic Sea." — Life of Josephus. 

"And he made him drunk ifi4dv<rev." — 2 King s 
(2 Sam.) xi, 13. 

Note.— Compare the above with Greek quotations Nos, LXVI, 
LXVII. 

3 

" He covered them iK&\v\pev with the sea; they sank 
Karidvo-av into the depth like a stone."— Ex. xv, 5. 

LXXIII. 

" They sank ipdirTifrv many of the vessels." — Poly- 
bius, Hist., bk. I, chap, li, 6. 

4 

"Thou sentest forth Thy wind, the sea covered 
4K&\v\pey them ; they sank %8v<rav like lead in the mighty 
water." — Ex. xv, 10. 

LXXIV. 

c ' His ship being sunk p<nrTi<reel<rris confusion seized 
the fleet of the barbarians."— Diodorus Sieulus, xi, 18. 

5 
" Let not the water-flood drown KarairovTUTdra me, 
nor let the deep swallow me." — Psa. lxix, 15. 

See Greek quotation No. LXI. 

6 
" Verily the water would have drowned Karew6rr mp 
us." — Psa. cxxiv, 4. 

4< One saved in the voyage, whom it were better 
to drown jScwtt/o-cu, " — Themistius, Oration^ 4. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 153 



" Thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast ptym it 
into the midst of Euphrates: and thou shalt say, 
Thus shall Babylon sink /carad&reTcu, and shall not rise 
from the evil that I will bring upon her/' — Jer. li, 63, 
64; (Septuagint, ch. xxviii.) 

i 'These men . . . afterwards sunk i^ndav 
the city." — Josephus, Wars of the Jews, IV, iii, 3. 

8 

"The Lord recompenses, and will make her 
leaders . . . completely drunk Mefl&ret ^#27." — Sep- 
tuagint, Jer. xxviii, 57; Eng. Ver. li, 57. 

4 'He has filled me with bitterness; he has made 
me drunk iiUBv™ with gall."— Lam. iii, 15. 

LXXV. 

"You seem to me, guests, to be strangely 
flooded with vehement words, and drunk pepawTUrecu 
with undiluted wine."— Athenseus, Philosophers' Ban- 
quet, bk. V, ch. 64. 

9 

"Mine eye is drowned KarewSeT] with tears." — Lam. 
iii, 49. 

lxxvi. 

" Eor Charicles, indeed, it shall be lawful to weep, 
but let us not be drowned with a-vfxpaTrT^ib/jieda him in 
his grief, nor let us heedlessly be borne away by his 
tears as by floods." — Heliodorus, iEthiopics, bk. IV, 
20. 



154 Baptizing— Biblical and Classical. 

10 

" Water was poured around irepiex^v as to the soul: 
the lowest deep compassed me, my head went down to 
the clefts of the mountains/' — Jonah ii, 6. 

lxxvii. 
"But Dionysius was seized indeed by a tempest, 
and was baptized ipa-n-TifcTo as to the soul; but yet he 
struggled to emerge from the passion, as from a 
mighty wave." — Chariton of Aph., Story of Char, and 
Oal., bk. II, 4. 

11 

"So they took Jonah, and cast him out £&pd\ov 
avrbv into the sea." 

" Thou didst cast dirtfipupas me into the depths of 
the heart of the sea." — Jonas i, 15; xi, 4. 

" And slaying some on land, and baptizing faim- 
ibvT<av others with their boats and huts into the lake." — 
Heliodorus, (Theagenes and Chariclea). 

The Usage of the Septuagint is also that of 
the New Testament. 
1 
u And beginning to sink KaTairovri^dai, (or drown)." 
—Matt, xiv, 30. 

2 

" He should be sunk KaraTrovTicrdri (or drowned) in 
the depth of the sea." — Matt, xviii, 6. 

3 

" And they came and filled both the boats, so that 
they began to sink ftoeitwew.." — Luke, v, 7. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 155 

4 
" And be not drunken fMedfoKeade with wine, wherein 
is riot."— Eph. v, 18. 

5 

" Such as drown pvdlfrwn men in destruction and 
perdition." — 1 Tim. vi, 9. 



"Which the Egyptians assaying to do were 
drowned Kareirbe-qcrav" — Heb. xi, 29. 

7 
" By which means the world that then was, being 
overflowed KaraKKweeU with water, perished."— 2 Peter, 
iii, 6. 



Compare Gk, Quo. No. xx. 



Chaptee XVIL 

NAAMAN AND JUDITH WERE BAPTIZED 

BECAUSE THEY "BATHED THEIR 

WHOLE FLESH IN WATER." 



Assertions made by Wilkes, Conant, Fuller, 
and Carson. 

"I hold that the leper was to bathe his whole 
flesh in water, which is an immersion ... I ask 
for one case, including the case of the leper, where the 
cleansing was by sprinkling, without the washing of 
the body. The fact is, there never was a ceremonial 
cleansing without bathing the body in water; and this 
was the case, not only with persons, but with things. " 
—The Wilkes-Ditzler Debate, p. 507. 

" There was evidently no lack of water for the im- 
mersion of the body, after the Jewish manner; namely, 
by walking into the water to the proper depth and then 
sinking down till the whole body was immersed. . . . 
According to the common Greek text, this was done 
'at the fountain;' to which she went, because she had 
there the means of immersing herself, Any other use 
of water for purification, could have been made in her 
tent*"— Baptizein, sec. II, p. 85. 

156 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 157 

" She bathed in the fountain. She was, of course, 
dressed in proper apparel. As if to leave no doubt how- 
ever as to her bathing, it is expressly said that ' she 
came out of the water.' The pretence that bathing 
would have been indelicate, is absurd." — Fuller, 
Quoted in Dale's Judaic Baptism, p. 353. 

"This ought to have been translated she dipped 
herself. . . . We neither imagine nor assume that 
Judith was immersed in water. It is from the estab- 
lished meaning of the word, not from independent 
probability that we must derive our knowledge of the 
fact. Even were the fact improbable in itself, the 
testimony of the word would establish it. . . . If 
from other places I prove that immerse is the meaning 
of the word, this in every situation will provide the 
water. ... Is it not evident that Judith went 
out from the camp to the fountain at Bethulia, for the 
purpose of bathing, or washing her whole person ? 
Why did she go to the fountain ? Why did she leave 
the tent? Could not a small basin of water have 
served the purpose of successive washing ?"— Carson, 
Quoted in Dale's Judaic Baptism, p. 353. 

To my mind we have before us cases in which 
bias has obscured reason^ and judgment has been 
thwarted in its act by prejudice. 

Reply to Elder Wilkes. 
The thoughtful reader will perhaps perceive that 
Wilkes' appeal to the elaborate ritualism of Judaism 
to determine what shall be the practice of Christians 



158 Baptizing— Biblical and Classical. 

is not an exhibition of exhaustive knowledge of the 
subject he is discussing, for it is quite generally rec- 
ognized that "ritualism is only the elementary teach- 
ing, the A B C of religion." The purpose of Juda- 
ism was such that rites and ceremonies were elab- 
orated to the fullest extent, as Dr. J. M. Keid has 
written : 

" There were lessons of purity and duty in the 
food they ate, the raiment they wore, the dwellings 
they occupied, the holidays they kept, the songs they 
sang, and in almost every passing hour, and day, and 
week and month." 

Farther than this, we have been taught in the 
Sacred Book that this elaborate system of divine 
worship and religious culture was not to endure for- 
ever, but was "imposed until a time of reformation." 
That the time of reformation came with Christ is 
universally recognized, and one proof of that fact 
is seen in the narrowing down of the elaborate ritual 
of Judaism to two simple Christian sacraments — the 
Lord's Supper and water baptism. Judaism had 
"divers (water) baptisms;" Christianity has but one. 
The baptisms of Judaism were of frequent occur- 
rence; that of Christianity occurs but once in a 
human life. 

ISTor can we afford to lose sight of our main quest, 
which is, Does the word Baptidso determine the 



Baptizing — Biblical ajstd Classical. 159 

mode ix which the christian water rite should 
be administered ? 

If we should tarry to discuss the question, Do 
the ritual practices of Judaism determine the num- 
ber and form of the Christian rites ? we ought also 
to discuss, The meaning and uses of water in sym- 
bolic ritualism. 

Reply to Dr. Fuller. 

There is not so much as a hint that "she came 
out of the water," how then can it be "expressly 
said" that she did ? She "went up" out of the valley 
into which it is expressly said she "went down:" 

"And went down mrd 1 nightly into the valley of 
Bethulia efc tV (pdpayya BervXofa and baptized herself in 
the camp at em the fountain of water. And as she 
went up /cat ws aptpri 1 she besought the Lord." 

Reply to Dr. Carson. 

No, it is "not evident that Judith went out from 
the camp to the fountain at Bethulia." It is evi- 
dent that she remained "in the camp," where the 
fountain was situated. 

The meaning of the word baptidso will not "in 
every situation provide the water." Medical instru- 



i u 'Ai/d, originally up (opposed to Kara). Kara, originally down 
(opposed to Wa) "—Goodwin, Greek Grammar, sec. 191, p. 238. 



160 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

ments and swords were baptized "in the body;" 
Cupid was baptized into wine; the brain was bap- 
tized with blood ; tow with oil ; and persons with in- 
toxicants. 

Washing of the Whole Person was not Bap- 
tizing. 

To ns moderns a washing, either by pouring or 
dipping, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit, if entered into with the intention of conse- 
crating the life to God, and at the hands of a prop- 
erly qualified person, would be Christian baptism, 
but we are now dealing with the meaning of Greek 
words in the classic sense, and meeting the denial 
of those who assert that upon entering the Sacred 
Scriptures the word baptidso did not undergo a 
change in or take on an additional meaning. 

It was an easy thing for these authors to assume 
that classic baptidso was used, with no discrimina- 
tion, of every and any transaction in water if the 
whole person were but fully covered therewith. To 
make their assertion of value it is necessary for them 
to prove that baptidso and louo are synonyms; that 
baptizing was bathing and not drowning, and that 
baptidso was used of the same class of transactions 
as was louo. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 161 

Of what benefit is it to know that a word once 
had a "perfectly defined and unvarying import/' if 
we do not in every instance of its use maintain that 
import and demand that it lead us to the truth ? 
Have we one instance, in the whole number of Greek 
quotations which contain baptidso, where louo is used 
as a synonym thereof? Have we found one case in 
which baptidso is used of the simple, refreshing 
bath ? If baptidso was not used of the bath by the 
ancient Hellenes, upon what foundation do they build 
who assert that a washing of the whole body is the 
same as a classic baptizing ? 

If in the Septuagint and Apocrypha a washing 
is equivalent to a baptizing, and in the classics a 
non-equivalent, which word of the two has ceased to 
carry its former meaning ? It certainly is not louo, 
for that term is used in the same sense in the Bible 
as in Homer. 

Baptidso and Louo. 
Louo has one characteristic which is possessed by 
baptidso. Both words demand a total covering of 
the person or thing; baptidso that the covering of 
one part be synchronous with the covering of the 
other parts or remainder. Louo does not demand 
simultaneous covering; to wash the person by simul- 
11 



162 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

taneous covering of the whole, or to cleanse part after 
part until the whole is cleansed, both methods equally 
meet the requirement of louo. Outside of this fact, 
and that baptidso, bapto, and louo belong in the 
group of words used of transactions performed in 
and with water, they are distinct, opposite. "Each 
word has its own peculiar domain assigned to it, 
which it does not itself overstep, and upon which the 
other does not encroach. " 

Drown and Bathe. 

The difference between our English words drown 
and bathe is also one of the marked differences be- 
tween baptidso and louo — the one tells of disaster 
and death, the other of refreshing and pleasurable 
gratification : 

" Caithness: 

And with him pour we in our country's purge 
Each drop of us. 

" Lennox : 

Or so much as it needs 

To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the weeds. " 
—Macbeth, Act V, sc. 2. 

"Bathed in the fountains of the dew 
Thy sense is keen, thy joys are new." 

— Mrs. Barbauld, To the Lark. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 163 

LXXVIII. 

" For being anxious that their children should 
speedily excel in all things they impose on them 
excessive labors. . . . For as plants are nourished 
by a moderate amount of water, but are choked wviyeraL 
by too much, in^he same manner a soul grows by pro- 
portionate labors, but is baptized pairrlfrTai (drowned) by 
such as are excessive." — Plutarch, On the Education 
of Children, XII. 

1 

" Having put me in a bath, she washed X6' me from 
the large tripod, pouring water pleasantly over my 
head and shoulders, until she took away from my 
limbs mind-destroying labor." — Homer, Odyssey, X, 
361. 

2 

" He went to the bath saying to those about him, 
6 Let us go and bathe diroXovaSpevoi from the fatigue of 
the battle in the bath of Darius.'" — Plutarch, Life of 
Alexander, XX. 

3 

"Upon his head 
And shield she caused a constant flame to play 
Like to the autumnal star that shines in heaven 
Most brightly when new-bathed \e\ v/xepos in ocean 
tides." 

— Homer, Iliad, V, 6. 

Aovw, louo. 

For all who are seeking after truth it is fortu- 
nate that the Greek word now under consideration 



164 Baptizing— Biblical and Classical. 

had in classic times a clearly defined meaning and a 

well understood use, We may go farther than this, 

and say that which is true of louo applies with equal 

truth to pluno, nidso, rhantidso, brecho, and cheo. To 

us who use the word wash of garments, the person, 

the air, the seashore, and things generally, in whole 

and in part, it ought to be enlightening ; yea, it ought 

to he a convincing fact that baptidso and louo are 

not synonymous terms when the Greeks, to whom 

these were a part of the mother tongue, so nicely 

discriminated between them, and were so choice in 

their use. 

Definition. 

"Aotfo?, louo, to wash; properly, to wash the body 
(Wfw being used of the hands and feet, ttXiW of clothes). 
X6 \k Tplirodos iueyd\oLo washed me with water, from a great 
caldron, Odys. X, 361. Med. and Pass, to bathe 
\odadai irorafwto porjo-LP^ Od. VI, 261; but also c. gen., 
XcXou^ros "SiKeavoto (of a star just risen) fresh from 
Ocean's bath, Iliad V, 6. 2. In strict passive sense 
\ovadai viro roO Ai6s, L e. , to be washed by the rain from 
heaven, Hdt. Ill, 124-5. 3. In strict middle sense c. 
ace, \o4a<raadai xp™ to wash one's body, Hes. Op., 520, 
Th. 5; \ovaecu vdaTL rb <Tufj.a, Hdt. IV, 75.— Liddell and 
Scott's Lexicon. 

4 

"They desired him to wash himself \o0ct6m in the 
streams of the river. But Ulysses washed vlfrro away 
the brine which surrounded his back and wide 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 165 

shoulders from his body with the waters of the river. 
. But when he had washed himself all over 
XotaacLTo and anointed himself with oil." — Homer, 
Odys. VI, 216-227, compare VII, 29. 



"But when they had washed dTowXtvawes his chariot 
in the fountain of Jezreel, which was bloody with the 
dead body of the king, they acknowledged that the 
prophecy of Elijah was true, for the dogs licked his 
blood, and the harlots continued afterwards to wash 
themselves Xoutytemt in that fountain." — Josephus, Ant. 
VIII, xv, 6. 

6 

"And carrying in his hand a water-pot . . . 
he walks through the midst of the city to the tombs. 
Then he takes water from the fountain, and washes 
airoKotei the little pillars of the monuments." — Plutarch, 
Aristides, chap. xxi. 

7 

"She was sick and died: whom when they had 
washed \ovo-avTes, they laid in an upper chamber." 
" And he took them the same hour of the night and 
washed skowev their stripes." — Acts ix, 37; xvi, 33, 

8 

"For 'the same reason the women did not wash 
irepU\ovov their new-born infants with water, but with 
wine, thus making some trial of their habit of body." 
■ — Plutarch, Lycurgus xvi. 



166 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

9 
" And I washed e\ov<ra thee with water, and washed 
dH-rrXvpa thy blood from thee, and anointed thee with 
oil." — Sept. Jezekiel xvi, 9. 

In the foregoing we observe the widest range of 
usage — the pouring of water from a vessel held in 
the hands, ISTos. 1, 2, and 6 ; sinking into water, 
No. 3 ; wetting, Nos. 7, 8, 9 ; and by the sprinkling 
of rain, see example found in Liddell and Scott's 
definition. 

Louo makes no modal requirement — as Dr. Car- 
son has said: "That the word does not necessarily 
express mode, I readily admit." It asks for a cleans- 
ing of the whole body and is content with that by 
whatever mode it may be performed. 



Chapter XVIII. 
PIPPING NOT COMMANDED IN THE LAW. 

We can have no quarrel with the statement of 
Conant in which he said that the Jewish manner 
was to walk into the water and dip the whole body; 
nor do we wish to withhold from the reader a state- 
ment of Maimonides, the Jewish writer, quoted by 
Pegrum in his tract, "Secular Baptism :" 

" Wheresoever in the law, washing of the flesh is 
mentioned, it means nothing else than the dipping of 
the whole body in water ; for if any man wash himself 
all over, except the top of his little finger, he is still in 
his un cleanness/ 5 

Josephus, who is certainly a more valuable wit- 
ness — -having lived while the Temple stood upon 
Moriah's height, and while Judaism was yet in its 
strength — said nothing of dipping in water. He told 
of those who "went down into cold water" (Ant. 
Ill, XI, 3), and of one who "to preserve chastity 
bathed Xovo^vov with cold water" (Life, sec. 2), 
but he avoided the use of bapto. There is nothing in 
his words Ka6ds iavrbv eh v8a>p, which demand im- 

167 



168 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

mediate withdrawal nor total synchronous intuspo- 
sition. (Compare John v, 4.) 

To PASS WATER OVER THE ENTIRE SURFACE OF 
THE BODY IS ONE THING; TO PLACE THE BODY IN 
WATER UNTIL IT IS ENTIRELY COVERED AND REMOVE 
IMMEDIATELY IS ANOTHER ; TO SINK THE BODY UNTIL 
IT IS ENTIRELY COVERED AND COMPEL IT TO REMAIN 
THERE UNTIL DEATH ENSUES IS YET ANOTHER. Of 

the first act louo was preferably used ; of the 
second Bapto; and of the third Baptidso. 

The Modification of Ancient Jewish Ritual. 
Much of the ritual prescribed by Jehovah through 
Moses underwent modification in the hands of the 
Pharisees and Essenes ; this is especially true of the 
water rites : 

" The high priest on the day of atonement had, — 
according to the ritual of the second temple — to bathe 
five times, and wash hands and feet ten times. (So 
the Talmudic tract Joma, III, 3, in Eobert Shering- 
ham's edition p. 46.) The Thorah (Lev. xvi, 4, 24,) 
prescribes only a twofold bath." — Delitzsch, Com. on 
Hebrews, vol. 2, p. 176. 

"For the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they 
wash vtywvrai their hands up to the elbow, eat not, 
holding the tradition of the elders: and when they 
come from the market-place, except they baptize 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 169 

themselves pawTlwvTai. they eat not: and many other 
things there be, which they have received to hold, 
baptizings pa-mo- [tots of cups, and pots and brazen 
vessels. . . . And he said unto them. . . . 
Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the 
traditions of men." — Mark vii, 3-8. 

" And when they send what they have dedicated to 
God to the Temple, they do not offer sacrifices, because 
they have more pure lustrations of their own duHpop&rrrri 
ayveLuv, &s voixi^oLev.' 1 — Josephus, Ant. xviii, 1, 5. 

"And although this easement of the body be 
natural, yet it is a rule with them to wash themselves 
airoKoveo-dai after it, as if it were a defilement to them. 
. . . Now after the time of their preparatory trial 
is over, they are parted into four classes; and so far 
are the juniors inferior to the seniors, that if the 
seniors should but touch the juniors they must wash 
themselves awoXoveo-ecu as if they had intermixed them- 
selves with the company of a foreigner." — Wars of the 
Jews, II, VIII, 9 and 10. 

For more of a like nature consult Geikie's "Life 
and Words of Christ," pp. 172-4, 524-7 ; and McOlin- 
tock and Strong's Cyclopaedia, art. Ablution, pp. 
22, 23. 

We are compelled to place in one class the state- 
ment of Maimonides heretofore quoted, and the quo- 
tation which follows, because they are both of "the 
'New Law j" both are the direct result of those "Eab- 



170 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

binical refinements" of which Geikie has so interest- 
ingly written : 

"He who uses abundant water for hand-washing/' 
says E. Chasda, "will have abundant riches." "If 
one had not been out, it was enough to pour water on 
the hands ; but one coming in from without needed to 
plunge his hands into the water, for he knew not what 
uncleanness might have been near him while in the 
street, and this plunging could not be done except in 
a spot where there were not less than sixty gallons of 
water." — Geikie, Life of Christ, p. 526. 

Dipping I^ot Commanded in the Law. 

That the washing was often effected by dipping 
when running water in quantity was at hand I can 
not deny; but that it was commanded in the law is 
not true. I dare to make this very positive state- 
ment because the data we hold warrant it. The 
divine command to wash in preparation (1) for re- 
ligious duties, and (2) to secure the pure or clean 
condition after defilement, was given in the Hebrew 
word rachats mi an equivalent of Greek louo : 

" And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons to the 
doors of the tabernacle of testimony, and thou shalt 
wash ^rn them with water." 

" And shall wash tfrn himself in water, and shall 
be clean." — Exod. xxix, 4; Lev. xiv, 8; Num. xix, 19. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 171 

Aovu) occurs no less than forty-six times in the 
Septuagint and New Testament : Exod. ii, 5 ; xxix, 4 ; 
xl, 12 ; Lev. viii, 6 ; xi, 40 ; xiv, 8, 9 ; xv, 5, 6, 7, 
8, 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, 21, 22, 27; xvi, 4, 24, 26, 28; 
xvii, 15, 16; xxii, 6; Num. xix, 7, 8, 19; Deut. 
xxiii, 11 ; Ruth iii, 3 ; 2 Kings xi, 2 ; xii, 20 ; 4 Kings 
v, 10, 12, 13; Job ix, 20; Isaiah i, 16; Ezek. xvi, 
4, 9; xxiii, 40; John xiii, 10; Acts ix, 37; xvi, 33; 
Heb. x, 22 ; 2 Peter ii, 22. 

The Gbeek preposition iv in the classics 
a locative, in the Septuagint often instru- 
mental. 

In forty instances \ov<o louo is not accompanied by 
the preposition iv in ; in two instances it is without 
doubt locative iv t$ 'lopSdvy, iv avTois 4 Kings v, 10, 
12; thus there remain only four cases of what seems 
to be the locative dative iv vSan in water, (Ex xxix, 
4; Lev. xiv, 8; Ezek. xvi, 4, 9.) Forty instances 
of the instrumental dative vSari, against four which 
seem to be locative iv vSari, I say ' ' seem to be ' ' for 
the reason that iv is not at all times used in the sense 
of in^ and should be rendered by, with, or by means 
of, as in Ezek. xvi, 9, and elsewhere as the follow- 
ing instances testify : 

1 

" And he shall purify the house with the blood iv 
t§ afycart of the bird, and with the living water 4v ry vdan 



172 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

rip {upti and with iv the living bird, and with iv the 
cedar wood, and with iv the hyssop, and with iv the 
spun scarlet." — Ley. xiv, 52; 1 Cor. v, 8. 



"Though, thou shouldst wash thyself with nitre 
iv vfrptp, and multiply to thyself soap, thou art stained 
by thine iniquities iv rats adudais before me saith the 
Lord."— Jer. ii, 22. 



"And three-tenths of fine flour for sacrifice kneaded 
with oil 4v i\al<p" — Lev. xiv, 10. 

Another case of iv is worthy of special attention : 

"And he made ten lavers, and set five on the right 
hand, and five on the left, to wash in them irXtivew iv 
airoXs the instruments of the whole burnt offerings, and 
to rinse in them faroMffriv iv avToXs; and the sea for the 
priests to wash in viirrecreai 4v atiry." — 2 Chron. iv, 6 ; 
Josephus, Ant. VIII, iii, 6. 

It is very clear that iv is used here in an instru- 
mental sense, for firsts vLirr^ai refers to the 
cleansing of hands and feet only, which was accom- 
plished by the water from the upper vessel pouring 
down upon the hands and feet held beneath ; e. g. : 

"And Aaron and his sons shall wash vtyerai their 
hands and their feet with water from it ii afrov" — 
Exod. xxx, 19; 2 Kings iii, 11* 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 173 

The Tabernacle Laver. 

" Within these gates was the brazen laver irepippavnfpLov 
1 for purification, having a base 2 beneath of the 
same material, whence the priests might wash airoirMveLv 
their hands and pour down upon Karax^ 3 their 
feet/ 5 — Josephus, Ant. Ill, vi, 2. 

"1. Perirrhantayrion, utensil for sprinkling, es- 
pecially a kind of whisk for sprinkling water at sacri- 
fices, or a vessel for lustral water.' 5 — Liddell and 
Scott's Lexicon. 

"2. The base or foot seems, from the distinct 
mention constantly made of it, to have been something 
more than a mere stand or support. Possibly it formed 
a lower basin to catch the water which flowed, through 
taps or otherwise, from the laver. The priests could 
not have washed in the laver itself, as all the water 
would have been thereby defiled,, and so would have 
had to be renewed for each ablution. The Orientals, 
in their washing make use of a vessel with a long 
spout, and wash at the stream which issues from 
thence, the waste water being received in a basin 
which is placed underneath, It has therefore been 
suggested that they held their hands and feet under 
streams that flowed from the laver, and that the c foot ' 
(or basin) caught the water that fell." — McClintock 
and Strong's Cyclopaedia, art. Laver. 

3. " Katacheo, to pour down upon; pour over; to 
pour or shower down." 

Until I find evidence to the contrary, I shall con- 
tinue to believe that it was by sprinkling or by pour- 



174 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

ing water upon them that Moses washed- — that is, 
publicly installed as priests — Aaron and his sons at 
the door of the Tabernacle. As the Essene men went 
to the bath with something girded about them (see 
Josephus, Wars II, VIII, 13), so also may Aaron 
and his sons to their solemn induction into the holy 
office of the priesthood. 

If a washing by pouring sufficed in other most 
important cases, such as the abjuration of blood 
(Deut. xxi, 1-9), for what reason was it insufficient 
in the case of Aaron's sons? Certainly a private 
self -washing preceded the public ceremony. 

If dipping into water of persons foe the re- 
moval OF UNCLEANNESS AND FOR APPROACH TO Je- 
HOVAH HAD BEEN CONTEMPLATED IN THE MOSAIC 
LAW, THEN THE WORD TABAL WOULD HAVE BEEN 
SELECTED. The REJECTION OF TABAL AND THE 

selection of ^achats the hebrew equivalent 

of Greek Louo — proves that a dipping into 

WATER, FOR THE PURPOSES STATED, WAS NOT RE- 
QUIRED BY THE LAW. 



Chapter XIX. 

THE BIBLICAL MEANINGS OF BAPTIDSO. 

" Nothing in the history of words is more common 
than to enlarge or diminish their signification. Ideas 
not originally included in them are often affixed to 
some words, while others drop ideas originally asserted 
in their application. A word may come to enlarge its 
meanings so as to lose sight of its origin. This fact 
must be obvious to even a smatterer in philology. " — 
Carson, on Baptism, pp. 44, 45. 

The Position of Conant and Stanley. 

"The Greek word Baptizein expresses nothing 
more than the act of Immeesion 1 the religious sig- 
nificance of which is derived from the circumstances 
connected with it. Thus when in obedience to the 
command in Matt, xxviii, 19, this act is performed on 
the assenting believer, in the name of the Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit, it by this becomes the Christian 
rite, and this distinguishes it from all other acts of 
life, and gives it a sacred relation and a sacred signifi- 
cance. But in Mark vii, 4 ("except they immerse them* 
selves") and in Luke xi, 38 ("that he had not im- 
mersed himself ") the act expressed by the same word 
is a superstitious Pharisaic ceremony condemned by 
our Lord Himself; and in Heb. ix, 10, the mere cere- 



al Note the equivocal sense, for dipping is certainly intended 
175 



176 Baptizing — -Biblical and Classical. 

monial immersions of the Jews are meant. The act 
designated by the word in all these cases is the same ; 
the relation in which it is performed constitutes the 
only distinction. . . . But the word Baptizein did 
not in itself express an immersion in the name of the 
Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, nor an im- 
mersion with reference ... to the sanctifying 
agency of the Spirit. Wherever it is used of the 
Christian rite in the New Testament this reference is 
clear from the connection, and only through this con- 
nection does it suggest the peculiar Christian ideas 
associated with it." — Conant, Baptizein, p. 101. 

With this chief postulate of those who exclusively 

practice dipping Dean Stanley fully agreed: 

" Lured on by these perfidious playmates, the 
princely boy joined in the sport, and then as at sunset 
the sudden darkness fell over the gay scene the wild 
band dipped and dived with him under the deep water, 
and in that fatal baptism 2 life was extinguished/' 

To the above statement he subjoined this foot- 
note: 

"The word pairTtfrvres, especially in that locality, 
whence in the next generation it acquired a new 
celebrity, arrests the attention, and, as used here, 
shows clearly its true meaning." — The Jewish Church, 
vol. Ill, lect. 1, p. 374. 

It is clear that Dr. Stanley was influenced more 
than he realized by Whiston's translation of this 



2 This is an example of the desecration of a word; a dragging 
down of things hallowed by religious associations, into the realm of 
the unhallowed and secular. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 177 

passage from Josephus (Ant. XV, III, 8) which is 

as follows : 

" Such of Herod's acquaintance as he had ap- 
pointed to do it dipped him as he was swimming, and 
plunged him under the water, in the dark of the even- 
ing, as if it had been done in sport only; nor did they 
desist till he was entirely suffocated." 

The word "dipped" requires the fact that the 
Gauls thrust the princely boy under the water, and 
immediately lifted him from it. The opposite is re- 
lated in the Greek text, fiapioy, to weigh down, to 
depress, does not indicate a hasty thrust downward, 
but downward pressure, both slow and steady ; hence 
in Wars of the Jews (n, xiv, 1) Whiston ren- 
dered that word thus: "nor did he only burden 
ifidpei the whole nation with taxes. ' ' 

We must regard the word "dived" as a filling in 
by the hand of the pictorial historian. The true 
meaning of baptidsontes, as used in this instance 
by Josephus, is clearly conveyed to the English 
reader in the familiar word sink: 

11 For those you make your friends 
And give your hearts to, when they once perceive 
The least rub in your fortunes, fall away 
Like water from ye, never found again 
But where they mean to sink ye." 

— King Henry VIII, act II, sc. 1. 
12 



178 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

Elder Wilkes's Affirmation. 
" Neither is it necessary to determine, in order to 
feel sure that we have a baptism, . . . whether 
that which is immersed comes up or not, ... it 
is baptized, whether it rises or not."— Louisville 
Debate, Wilkes's 10th reply, p. 575. 

There is not one such "baptism" recorded In the 
Sacred Scriptures; drowning is not baptism. 

Baptism a Religious Act. 
The drowning of Aristobulus was a classic bap- 
tizing, but not a baptism. The word baptism ( fiaTr- 
TKTfxa ) , like the rite, was in its origin Judaic ; cer- 
tainly it was not pagan, and is nowhere found de- 
scribing secular transactions, except in the hands of 
a few modern writers, some of whom use it properly 
of an initiation, and others without sufficient war- 
rant, much as Dean Stanley has done. BaTTi-wr/m was 
coined specifically to nominate the one water ordi- 
nance of Christianity, and by extension was applied 
to the water rites of Judaism. It has no pre-Chris- 
tian, classic associations with sunken things that 
never "came up," nor with immersed persons or 
things that did "not rise." If performed by dipping, 
Christian baptism requires, ere the act is perfected, 
that the candidate shall either be lifted by another 
or raise himself from out of the fluid environment. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 179 

Elder Wilkes forgot that rising from out of the water 
was absolutely necessary to meet the supposed imi- 
tation in water baptism of Christ's resurrection, ac- 
cording to the interpretation put upon Romans vi, 4, 
by his school. 

Looking into Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of 
the New Testament, we find: 

"BdwTio-fjLa, tos, t6, a word peculiar to New Testament 
and ecclesiastical writings. 1. Used tropically of 
calamities and afflictions with which one is quite over- 
whelmed. 2. Of John's baptism, that purificatory 
rite by which men on confessing their sins were bound 
to a spiritual reformation. . . . 3. Of Christian 
baptism." 

The pre-Christian, classic associations of 
/?a7ttt'£a> can have no weight in determining the 

MEANING OR USE OF /3a7m(7//a. 

The Classic and New Testament Use of Bap- 

tidsontes Contrasted. 

While it is true that Josephus, following classic 

usage, used baptidsontes of a murderous sinking into 

water, it is equally and remarkably true that our 

Lord, following Septuagint usage, employed it of a 

religious water rite: 

" Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the 
nations, baptizing pawTLfrvres them into the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost/' 



180 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

If we should translate this Scriptural baptid- 

sontes as Conant advised (Baptizein, pp. 158-163), 

we should have in lieu of the word "baptizing" its 

classic synonym, "immersing." 

" Go disciple all the nations immersing them into 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Spirit." — Benj. Wilson in the Emphatic Diaglott. 

Another might wish to have it translated thus: 

" Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the 
nations, setting them apart by water, in the name 
of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." 

Again, another with as good reason might ask 
that it be translated : 

" Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the 
nations, symbolizing the work of the Divine 
Spirit, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit." 

These are but other ways of saying: (1) The 
most prominent and important fact connected with 
the word baptidso, as used in this text, is the mode 
of the water baptism. (2) The most prominent and 
important fact connected with the word baptidso, in 
this connection, is the consecration or setting 
apart of men, by the rite, to be disciples of 
Jesus Christ. (3) The most important and promi- 
nent fact connected with the word baptidso, as used 
in the Great Commission, is its value in making ob- 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 181 

ligatory upon an ordained ministry the symbolizing, 
by a simple rite, of the work of the holy 
Spirit. 

Baptizing is Consecrating. 

In the Savior's command (Matt, xxviii, 18, 19) 
was mode in any way hinted at or intended? Was 
dipping? Certainly not, for that is not a meaning 
of the Greek word. Was immersion ? As emphatic- 
ally no, for that idea is excluded, since the candi- 
date if put into water is at once lifted. Was sprink- 
ling or pouring? There is nothing to indicate the 
one or the other in the words used. Mode can not 
be the prominent thought and fact; we are face to 
face with the word baptidso used specifically of 
the application to men and women (about to 
enter upon a new service and an entirely new mode 
of life) of the water rite of consecration and 
initiation. 

The point made by the writer of the first memoir 
of Christ in the words, "And were baptized of him 
in Jordan confessing their sins," was not that John 
the Baptist dipped them into the water, nor that he 
sprinkled water upon them, but that they signified — 
by submitting to the rite at his hands — "that they 
passed out of their secular life into the dedicated life 
of citizens" of the kingdom of heaven now at hand. 



182 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical, 

That this was the uppermost idea is proved by the 
fact that when Paul wished to quell the schism in 
the Church at Corinth, he asked into whose name 
they had been baptized; that is, to whom they had 
consecrated themselves, to Paul or to the Crucified 
One? (1 Cor. i, 13.) If consecrated to Christ in 
baptism (of water and Spirit), then disciples of His 
— joined to Him by ties the most tender and indis- 
soluble; hence the rebuke followed by the exhorta- 
tion found in chapter vi, 5-18. 

This is one of the two most prominent points in 
chapter x, 2, where "baptized" equals set apart or 
consecrated. By crossing the sea and following the 
lead of Moses the Israelites cut themselves off from 
the old Egyptian bondage and "took upon themselves 
a new service and an entirely new mode of life." 

As Christians were "separated by the waters of 

baptism from an evil world," so were the Beni Israel 

separated by the waters of the Red Sea from the 

evils, idolatries, and bondage of Egypt. 

" Baptism signifies a full and eternal consecration 
of the person to the service and honor of that Being in 
whose name it is administered." — Adam Clarke, LL. D. , 
Com. on Matt. 28: 19. 

" Baptism then became a moral vow, to show by a 
better life, that the change of heart was genuine." — 
Geikie, Life of Christ, p. 276. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 183 

"John's baptism, a rite once performed and 
initiating an amendment of life." — Lightfoot, Com. 
on Colossians, p. 451. 

" There was no such thing known to Paul as a 
Christian society without baptism as a rite of initia- 
tion, and the supper as its right of communion." — 
Denney, The Death of Christ, p. 84. 

The View of the Church Fathers. 

The dogma of modalists, that dipping only is 

water baptism, was certainly not held by those who 

practiced baptism by dipping in the second and third 

centuries. Clement of Alexandria relates how a 

young man originally baptized by the Apostle John, 

after having gone astray, was reclaimed by the aged 

saint : 

" And he when he heard, first stood looking down, 
then threw down his arms, then trembled and wept 
bitterly. And on the old man approaching he em- 
braced him, speaking for himself with lamentations 
as he could, and baptized a second time with tears roh 
divert paiTTifauevos iK devrepov concealing only his right 
hand, etc."— Who is the Eich Man Who Shall Be 
Saved? ch. xlii. 

Why did Clement call this a baptizing ? For the 
reason that it was a true repentance with which was 
associated, in connection with water — in this case not 
a sea, stream, or baptismal font, but a man's tears — 



184 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

a reconsecration of the life to God: the going back 
into the life of one initiated into the kingdom of 
heaven. 

" And wonder not if I call the witness (martyrdom) 
a baptism pdirTurna. For here also, the Spirit hovers 
over with great fullness, and there is a taking away of 
sins, and a cleansing of the soul wonderful and 
strange; and as they who are baptized with water 
pairTLtffxevoi to?s vdaviv, so are they who witness to their 
own washing 1 with blood." — Chrysostom, Discourse II, 
On Lucian the Martyr. 

' c According to the assumption of immersionists 
(dippers) the word immerse is the equivalent of bap- 
tize ; but if so, the naked fact of sinking under water 
exhausts its meaning, and whatever besides this 
abstract idea is necessary to the ordinance is not 
expressed, and can not be expressed by the word bap- 
tize. . . . The specific term that would express 
the mode of the action may be included or implied in 
the generic ; but it is not and can not be an equivalent 
for it, because it does not exhaust its meaning. The 
generic baptize may imply the specific pour, sprinkle or 
immerse (dip) but neither of these words, nor all of 
them together, can be taken as an equivalent for bap- 
tize, for the reason that they do not exhaust the mean- 
ing of baptize. There is still a religious idea, a 
consecration to a holy service, that no specific term 
expressive of mode can convey, and on this account, we 
we would not have the word murdered by any partial 
translation." — Merrill, Christian Baptism, pp. 178-9. 

l " Washing," a term often applied to baptism by the early 
Church Fathers ; see the quotation from Clement of Alex, on p. 186. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 185 

Meanings of Baptism and Baptize in Modern 
Literature. 
A very strong corroboration of the foregoing facts 
is found in the meanings now conveyed by the words 
baptism and baptize in secular literature: 

initiation into danger, or lofty, daring deeds. 

" She, Ericsson's Monitor, had stood her baptism of 
fire, uninjured and undismayed." — T. J. Headley, The 
Great Rebellion, p. 296. 

" The men of the Imperial Light Infantry received 
their baptism of fire, shooting and killing Boer marks- 
men and snipers."— The Family Herald (Montreal), 
Mar. 7, 1900. 

to initiate into a higher sphere or calling; to 

hallow, to purify. 

" And there alone, upon the mountain top, 
Kneeling beside the lamb, I bowed my head 
Beneath the chrismal light, and felt my soul 
Baptized and set apart to poetry." 

—J. G. Holland, Kathrina, Part I. 

"When shall the land, baptized by the tears and 
the blood of the Waldenses and Huguenots, turn 4 from 
idols,' to serve the living God?" — World-Wide Missions. 

" The all-purifying virtue of his Spirit, whereof 
this baptism of the prophet's lips was a symbol, takes 
away the dross, which by other means (than that fire) 
can not be purged." — -Eob't Leighton, D. D. , Expository 
Lectures, 2. 



186 Baptizing — -Biblical and Classical. 

to administer the water rite of christianity, 

and to imitate it. 

"Christianity soon became, not merely a baptized 
Judaism, but what was worse, baptized Paganism." — 
Wagstaff, Hist, of the Friends, Introduction, p. 32. 

Clement of Alexandria, when writing of the false 
teachers and corrupters of Christianity, who instead 
of a doctrine that deters and cleanses from sin, taught 
the indulgence of it; and hence those baptized by 
them they "washed into sensuality/' and not from it : 

" And we indeed 'were washed,' a-rreXovad^eOa who 
were among these ; those of whom Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 
vi, 9-11, but they who wash airoXotvres into this sensuality 
baptize PairTlfrvai (initiate) from sobriety into fornication, 
teaching to indulge the pleasures and passions." — The 
Stromata, bk. Ill, ch. 18. 

Note.— Conant has translated this baptidsousi 'immerse ; but 
his rendering is opposed to the Latin version which exhibits the 
mode practiced by niany in the third century in the word tingunt; 
the Biblical term oltto\qvio in the word abluti; and the initiatory rite 
in the word baptizant. The proof that baptidso in this connection 
ought not to be translated is that it stands as the technical desig- 
nation of the the Christian rite, and an imitation thereof by pagans 
and heretics. 

The fact which totally wrecks Conant's claim that 
"The Greek word Baptizein expresses nothing more 
than the act of immersion," is, that not once is bap- 
tizein (baptidso) used in the New Testament of that 
secular act. 

It has been shown elsewhere that baptidso is em- 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 187 

ployed only of a religious water rite, and not for 
lack of transactions such as the Greeks would natu- 
rally use it to describe, but for the reason that the 

WORD BaPTIZEIN DID IN ITSELF EXPRESS AN APPLI- 
cation of water to a repentant believer in 
Jesus Christ, and the sanctifying agency of 
the Holy Spirit. 

When I read that "in the next generation bap- 
tidso acquired a new celebrity," the question sug- 
gested was, For what reason ? for it is passing strange 
that an ordinary rank and file word, used in the old, 
well-known sense, should distinguish itself. Men dis- 
tinguish themselves by doing the rare, new, and ex- 
traordinary, and the same must be true of words. 
Baptidso "acquired a new celebrity," because of a 
new, enlarged meaning and use. 

Granting that baptidso is once used in the Sep- 
tuagint in a classic, figurative sense, e. g., Isaiah 
xxi, 4, we can truthfully postulate that which fol- 
lows: The translators who gave us the Septua- 
gint used Baptidso of the religious water rites 
of Judaism ; and the writers of the New Testa- 
ment used Baptidso only of (1) religious water 
rites; (2) the work of the Holy Spirit; (3) 
the sufferings of christ j and (4) the setting 
apart of Israel to follow Moses. 



188 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

The Administration of Religious Water Rites. 
4 Kings v, 14; Judith xii, 7; Ecclus. xxxiv, 3; 
Matt, iii, 6, 11, 13, 14, 16; xxviii, 19; Mark i, 4, 
8, 9; Luke iii, 7, 12, 16, 21; vii, 29, 30; John i, 25, 
26, 28, 31, 33; iii, 22, 23, 26; iv, 1, 2; x, 40; Acts 
i, 5 ; ii, 38, 41 ; viii, 12, 13, 16, 36, 38 ; ix, 18 ; x, 47, 
48; xi, 16; xvi, 15, 33; xviii, 8; xix, 3, 4, 5 ; xxii, 
16; 1 Cor. i, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17; xv, 29. 

The Work of the Holy Spirit. 
Matt, iii, 11 ; Mark i, 8 ; Luke iii, 16 ; John i, 
33; Acts i, 5; xi, 16; Rom. vi, 3; 1 Cor. xii, 13; 
Gal. iii, 27. 

The Sufferings of Christ. 
Matt, xx, 22, 23; Mark x, 38, 39; Luke xii, 50. 

The Setting Apart of Israel. 
1 Cor. x, 2. 

"The word pawrlfc was not univocal in classic 
literature; but above all it did not come into use in 
the Greek Testament, in either of the modal senses of 
the classic word expressive of a physical immersion, or 
of a submersion, but as a ritual or sacramental term, 
without expressing any definite physical action, and 
with a very different content/'— W. Gr. Williams, 
LL. D., Baptism, p. 27. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 189 

The use of baptidso for nothing but religious 
rites, divine operations, and the Redeemer's suffer- 
ings is not accidental, but intentional. There was 
not only the resolve to use it in a new sense, but 
with this, the fixed purpose not to employ it in its 
classic, literal sense, but instead to substitute some 
one of its several synonyms. This was the formal 
setting apart or consecration of the word to Je- 
hovah and to the service of His people. 

Baptidso not Translated in the Authorized 
Version. 
In his arraignment of the translators of the Au- 
thorized Version because they did not translate bap- 
tidso, but giving it suitable terminations adopted it 
as a member of our great English family of words, 
Conant said : 

" Concealing the form of the Christian rite under 
a vague term, which means anything the reader may 
please, it obscures the ideas thereby symbolized, and 
the pertinency of the inspired appeals and admonitions 
founded on them." — Baptizein, pp. 161, 162. 

This ought not to be charged to the modern 
Church, for historically "the form of the Christian 
rite was concealed ' ' when the word (Sairrifa was 
chosen, and the words /?a7rrw, x™, /fy^x* an( ^ pwr^Q) 
were rejected. 



190 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

" Our translators, in giving us the standard 
version, did exactly right in transferring these words 
to our language, with suitable terminations to make 
them legitimate English words. In their judgment 
they found in our language no equivalents for them 
and therefore did the only right thing; and we most 
cordially approve of their action. The only thing to 
be regretted is that they did not invariably transfer the 
words, as they always did when allusion was made to 
the ordinance of the Church. We do not believe lap- 
tizo ought to be translated pour, or sprinkle, or 
immerse in any instance, as it is not; and the few 
places where it is translated ' wash ' 1 would be better 
presented to the English reader if no translation had 
been attempted. As a class, effusionists are well con- 
tented with the authorized version, and have never 
sought a new translation on sectarian grounds." — S. 
M. Merrill, D. D., Christian Baptism, pp. 174, 175. 



i"And when they come from the market-place except they 
wash panTio-uvTai. (baptize) themselves, they eat not. "—Mark vii, 4. 
14 And when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first 
washed ej3a7rn<r0rj (baptized) before dinner."— Luke xi, 38. 



Chapter XX. 

DEEP OR RUNNING WATER— WHICH ? 

A peactice of the Jews altogether inexplicable 
and mysterious to many persons — except on the 
theory that they went to find deep water — is the 
going to running streams for the performance of re- 
ligious rites. 

Of Judith, Dr. Conant wrote : "This was done at 
the fountain to which she went, because she had there 
the means of immersing herself. Any other use of 
water for purification could have been made in her 
tent." 

Dr. Carson's words are of like import. (See 
chapter xvii.) The Jewish practice of going to 
running streams for purification grew out of a divine 
command : 

"And the priest shall command that one of the 
birds be killed in an earthen vessel over Eu^KiKG 
Water." — Lev. xiv, 5, 6. 

"And he shall take the cedar-wood, and the 
hyssop, and dip them in the blood of the slain-bird, 
and in the Bunking Water."— Lev. xiv, 51. 

" He shall bathe his flesh with Bunking Water, 
and shall be clean. 55 — Lev. xv, 13. 

191 



192 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

" They shall take the ashes of the burnt heifer of 
purification for sin, and Running Water shall be put 
thereto in a vessel." — Num. xix, 17, 

" They have forsaken me the fountain of Living 
Waters, and have hewed them out broken cisterns 
that can hold no water." — Jer. ii, 13; xvii, 13. 

4 ' Thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would 
have given thee Living Water." — John iv, 10, 11; 
Eev. vii, 17. 

The Testimony of Josephus. 

" They then bathe their bodies in Cold Water. 
And after this purification is over, etc." — Wars, II, 
viii, 5; Ant. Ill, xi, 3. 

" They put a little of these ashes into Spring 
Water."— Ant. IV, iv, 6. 

" And when Moses had purified them with Spring 
Waters and ointment, they became God's priests." 
"Moses took out the tribe of Levi, . . . and 
purified them by water taken from Perpetual 
Springs." — Ant. Ill, viii, 6, and xi, 1. 

a He appointed them certain purifications and 
washings with Spring Water." — Against Apion, bk. 
1, sec. 31. 

A small quantity of water could readily become 
defiled (see Lev. xi, 36-38) ; hence to avoid polluted 
water those seeking Levitical purity went to the run- 
ning streams. For this reason the Jewish places of 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical, 193 

prayer (the proseuchae) were built near running 

water : 

" And on the Sabbath day we went forth without 
the gate by a river side where we supposed there was a 
place of prayer."— Acts xiv, 13. 

Josephus related how the citizens of Halicarnas- 

sus granted certain privileges to the Jews of their 

city: 

" We have decreed that as many men and women 
of the Jews as are willing so to do may celebrate their 
Sabbaths and perform their holy offices according to 
the Jewish laws, and may make their proseuchse at 
the seaside according to the customs of their fore- 
fathers." — Antiquities XIV, x, 23. 

To have at hand pure, living water, John the 
Baptist practiced his noble rite at the lower Jordan 
near Jericho, and afterwards much farther up at 
Bethabara near Beth-shean. For the same reason 
later on he went to JEnon, to the stream running 
down from the high lands about Ebal and Gerizim. 
This preference for living water accounts for Peter's 
habit of baptizing at the seaside, as related in the 
literature of the early Church. (Becognitions of 
Clement, Bk. IV, chap, iii, and also V, xxxvi.) 

In that unique transaction on Mount Carmel, 

Elijah the prophet, 

4 'Ordered them to fill four vessels with water of the 
fountain, and to pour it upon the altar till it ran over 
13 



194 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

with it and till the trench was filled with the water 
poured into it."— Josephus, Ant., bk. VIII, ch. xiii, 5. 

Dr. Wolfe, a missionary of the English Church, 

found a sect of Christians in Mesopotamia who told 

him their custom was to baptize their children when 

thirty days old: 

" They take the child to the hanks of the river; a 
relative or friend holds it near the surface of the 
water while the priest sprinkles the element upon it, 
and with prayers they name the child." — Watson's In- 
stitutes, vol. II, p. 654. 

The Rev. A. S. Carman, in an article in The 

Standard, of Chicago, January 17, 1895, on "The 

Common Sense of the Baptist Position," affirmed 

that the Dunkards "baptize believers only, with trine 

immersion, in running waters," and Layard, in 

"Nineveh and Its Remains," vol. I, pp. 232, 234, 

237, relates how 

" All the Yezides before entering the sacred valley 
(of the Sheik Adi) washed themselves and their clothes 
in the stream issuing from it." 

" The interior is divided into three principal com- 
partments ; a large hall partitioned in the center by a 
row of columns and arches, and having at the upper 
end a reservoir filled by an abundant spring issuing 
from the rock. . . . The water of the reservoir is 
regarded with peculiar veneration. ... In it 
children are baptized, and it is used for other sacred 
purposes." 



Chapter XXI. 

BAPTIDSO WAS USED OF THE WASHINGS 

PERFORMED BY NAAMAN, JUDITH, 

AND THE UNCLEAN", BECAUSE 

THEY WERE RELIGIOUS IN 

THEIR CHARACTER. 

1 ' Wherever opposite views are held with warmth 
by religious-minded men, we may take for granted that 
there is some higher truth which embraces both. All 
high truth is the union of two contradictories. Thus 
predestination and free-will are opposites: and the 
truth does not lie between these two, but in a higher 
reconciling truth which leaves both true. So with the 
opposing views of baptism. Men of equal spirituality 
are ready to sacrifice all to assert, or to deny, the 
doctrine of baptismal regeneration. And the truth 
I believe will be found, not in some middle, moderate, 
timid doctrine which skillfully avoids extremes, but in 
a truth larger than either of these opposite views, 
which is the basis of both, and which really is that for 
which each party tenaciously clings to its own view as 
to a matter of life and death." — Eev. F. W. Eobertson, 
Sermons, Baptism, p. 267. 

195 



196 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

Washing of Person and Clothing Before Sac- 
rifice and Prayer. 
Before a Jew dared to enter the sacred precincts 
of altar, tabernacle, or Temple, he must bathe his 
body and put on clean clothes. 

1 

"And God said unto Jacob, Arise and go up to 
Bethel, and dwell there : and make there an altar unto 
God. . . . Then Jacob said unto his household, 
Put away the strange gods that are among you, and 
purify yourselves, and change your garments." — Gen. 
xxxv, 1, 2. 

2 

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the 
people, and sanctify them to-day and to-morrow, and 
let them wash their garments, and be ready against 
the third day: for the third day the Lord will come 
down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai." 
— Exod. xix, 10, 11, 14. 

3 

"Then David arose from the earth, and washed 
and anointed himself, and changed his apparel; and 
he came into the house of the Lord and worshiped." 
— 2 Sam. xii, 20. 

4 

"So it is said that we ought to go washed to 
sacrifices and prayers, clean and bright ; and that this 
external adornment and purification are practiced for 
a sign. Now purity is to think holy thoughts. 
Further, there is the image of baptism, which also was 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 197 

handed down to the (Greek) poets from Moses, as 
follows: " And she having drawn water, and wearing 
on her body clean clothes," It is Penelope that is 
going to prayer." — Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 
bk. IV, ch. 22. 

Note. Penelope was advised by Euryclea thus: "But having 
washed thyself and putting clean garments on thy body, ascending 
to the upper room, with tny women attendants, pray to Minerva.''— 
Odyssey, iv, 750-761 xvil, 48-50. 

5 

" Every synagogue ha3 a bath under the same roof, 
or in the vicinity, for enabling the worshipers to 
perform the ablutions to which they attach so much 
importance."— Hackett, A Tour Through the Holy 
Land, p. 231. 

The Washing of Hands Before Prayer. 

1 

" I will wash my hands in innocency; 
So will I compass thy altar, Lord." 
— Psalm xxvi, 6; lxxiii, 13; James iv, 8, 

2 
" Prevailed on by them, Eacus ascending the 
Hellenic hill, and stretching out washed hands to 
heaven, and invoking God, besought him to pity 
wasted Greece." — Clement of Alex,, The Stromata, 
bk. VI, ch. 3. Homer, Iliad, xvi, 230, xxiv, 302, vi, 
266. 

There is a matter brought to notice by McClin- 
tock and Strong (Cyclopaedia, art. Ablution), which 
to ignore would be unwise in us : 



198 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

" There is a passage in the Apocryphal book of 
Judith (xii, 7-9) which has been thought to intimate 
that the Jews performed ablutions before prayer. But 
we can not fairly deduce that meaning from it (comp. 
Euth iii, 3) ; since it is connected with the anointing 
(q. v.) which was a customary token of festivity (see 
Arnald, in loc) It would indeed prove too much if so 
understood, as Judith bathed in the water, which is 
more than even the Moslems do before their prayers. 
Moreover the authority, if clear, would not be con- 
clusive. 93 

The cylopsedists have fallen into error regarding 
the time and place of the anointing. Judith washed 
and anointed herself in her own house in Bethulia 
before she went out of the city and into the camp of 
Holofernes. ISTo mention is made of anointing in 
connection with the baptizing, which took place early 
the next morning, and shortly after midnight (chap, 
xii, 5, 6) three nights in succession (chap, v, 7). 
The transactions were quite different in their pur- 
pose. In the first "she washed, anointed, and decked 
herself bravely to beguile the eyes of all men that 
should see her;" in the others "she baptized herself 
at the fountain for prayer:" 

" And thy servant will go forth by night into the 
valley, and I will pray unto God." "And when she 
came up she lesouglit the Lord God of Israel to direct 
her way to the raising up of the children of his 
people." — Judith xi, 17 ; xii, 8 ; xiii, 3, 10. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 199 

We must not overlook the fact, which is intended 
by the writer to be the most prominent, namely, that 
Judith's mission in the camp of Holof ernes was alto- 
gether extraordinary and unique. Her prayers were 
not those of the daily routine life, and therefore she 
did more than purify the hands. We find exceptions 
even to stringent rules. The Mohammedans, who are 
required only to wash the hands, feet, and head be- 
fore prayer, sometimes do more than this : 

" Our janizary prepared himself, by ablution in 
the fountain near by, for performing his devotions at 
the noon-hour of prayer." 

"I saw a dozen Mussulmen, ranged along the 
beach, with their faces towards Mecca, silently per- 
forming their evening devotions. . . . The waves 
in which they had just lathed broke upon the strand 
at their feet."— Durbin, Observations in the East, 
Vol. I, pp. 48, 158. 

The Baptizing was Her Consecration" to the 
Work of Delivering Her People. 
For this one great purpose Jesus was baptized 
by John in Jordan ; it was His inauguration into the 
holy office of high-priest. Perhaps it was in part 
because of this high office of setting apart the divine- 
human high-priest that John was said to be one of 
the greater prophets, for a prophet could and did 



200 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

set apart both priests and kings. Meses consecrated 
the Levitical priesthood; John consecrated that of 
the order of Melchisedek. 

The consecration of the Beni-Israel to Moses, and 
to Jehovah whom he represented, when the water did 
not touch the persons of those consecrated, was 
termed a baptizing by Paul (1 Cor. x, 2). Gideon's 
band was set apart, to deliver Israel, at the brook 
Harod, when they lapped water "with the tongue as 
a dog lappeth." (Judges vii, 5.) 

It is very plain that Judith was not baptized in 
the classic sense of the word, for she came from the 
baptizing as fully alive as she went to it. We have 
seen that the word baptidso does not indicate that 
she dipt herself. It has also been established that 
baptidso is not synonymous with louo, and that louo 
is not modal, hence the mode of her purification is 
not known. 

This sphinx-like silence as to mode sets the active 
mind inquiring, Was the word baptidso used to de- 
clare either the purpose or some one characteristic 
of the act? In the three instances now under con- 
sideration the purpose differs, hence it does not fur- 
nish the clue we seek. Let us therefore ask, What 
one characteristic is possessed by all of these trans- 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 201 

actions ? Judith's words spoken of herself furnish 
the clue to her own act: "For thy servant is reli- 
gious, and serveth the God of heaven day and night." 
(Judith xi, 17.) 

That Judith deemed her work a holy office is not 
at all strange. That she prepared for it by applying 
water to her person is in keeping with the customs of 
her people, whose priests were set apart by a washing 
and sprinkling with water, and whose holy book was 
translated into the tongue of another people by men 
who were careful to bathe their bodies and to wash 
their hands each morning before beginning their 
work. (Josephus, Ant. XII, 11, 13.) 

Naaman. 

In 4 Kings v, 10-14, Septuagint version, the 
word ]ouo occurs thrice; first, in the command of 
the prophet ; second, as angrily repeated by Naaman ; 
and third, as reiterated by his servants. This suffi- 
ciently indicated the simple deed which was required, 
With this in mind Elder Wilkes said: 

"It is true, taval, in the Hebrew, is not the word 
used for wash in the prophet's command, the reason 
being that the word, which was used, looked to the 
result more than to the act; hence, rachats, indicating 
washing, was used rather than taval, which means 



202 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

immersion." — Wilkes-Ditzler Debate, sixth reply, 
p. 507. 

Note.— The point he thought he made 'against the position of 
Dr. Ditzler was that Baptidso in the Septuagint indicated the act 
and louo the result of the act. Over against this I set the stubborn 
fact that the Hebrew narrator, keeping the modal act performed by 
Naaman in view, with fine precision selected the word tabal, while 
the Seventy, with this word before them, deliberately rejected its 
exact Greek equivalent bapto, and used its antonym baptidso. 

The Seventy by using baptidso declared the dip- 
ping to be a religious rite; the Hebrew narrator 
using tabal, described in what manner Naaman 
obeyed the prophet's command. Cyril of Jerusalem 
(A. D. 315-367) made the same distinction when he 
used baptidso of the religious rite, and bapto of the 
mode in which it was performed: 

"Simon the Magian once came to the bath. He 
was baptized i^airriaev, but not enlightened; and the 
body indeed he dipped ££a^e*> in water, but the heart he 
did not enlighten by the Spirit/'— Preface to the 
Instructions. 

So also did the Eev. John Wesley: "I was asked 
to iaptize a child of Mr. Parker's, but Mrs. Parker 
told me ' neither Mr. P. nor I will consent to its 
being dipped.'" — Journal, Vol. I, p. 24. 

Eachats. 
The command was given to Naaman through the 
word rachats, which was used of washings both re- 
ligious and secular, whether of the face (Gen. xliii, 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 203 

31), the hands and feet (xviii, 4; xix, 2), the entire 
person (Lev. xv, 16; xvi, 4; xxii, 6), armor (1 Kings 
xxii, 38), and animal sacrifices (Exod. xxix, 17; 
Lev. i, 9, 13; viii, 21). For instances of water 
poured and sprinkled upon sacrifices, in religious 
ritual washing, see 1 Kings xviii, 33 ; 2 Maccabees 
i, 21.) 

Understanding the word rachats of a washing 
performed by any common mode, ISTaaman "went 
down and dipped himself seven times 1 in Jordan." 

Naaman a Peoselyte to Judaism. 

" And he and all his company returned to Elisha, 
and he came and stood before him and said, Behold, 
I know that there is no God in all the earth save only 
in Israel : ... let there be given to thy servant 
I pray thee the load of a yoke of mules; and thou 
shalt give me of the red earth: for henceforth thy 
servant will not offer whole-burnt-offering or sacrifice 
to other gods, but only to the Lord, by reason of this 
thing. And let the Lord be propitious to thy servant 
when my master goes into the house of Eemman to 
worship there, and he shall lean on my hand, and I 
shall bow down in the house of Eemman ; even let the 
Lord I pray be merciful to thy servant in this 
matter." — 4 Kings v, 15, 17, 18. 



lln the case of a Jewish leper, seven sprinklings with blood 
followed by a bath were required, Lev. xiv, 7, 8. The leper's house 
was sprinkled seven times with blood and water, verse 51. 



204 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

In these words we are informed that this dip- 
ping, because of its miraculous accompaniment, be- 
came to ISTaaman his consecration to Jehovah. He 
came to the prophet a leprous Rimmonite, he returned 
to Damascus a purified and healed Jehovist. 

" A leper once he [Eimmon] lost." — Milton, Para- 
dise Lost, bk. I, line 471. 

It was his conversion, up to that time the great- 
est religious experience of his life. 

Baptizing prom a Dead Body. 

That baptizing from a dead body was a religious 
rite no one will deny, since it was one of those ordi- 
nances prescribed for the Jewish people by Jehovah 
through his servant Moses. 

To those who lean towards the Pegrum theory 
(see Chapter XV), I wish to say that while we 
may deem the washings received through tra- 
dition "secular," they were not so to the Phari- 
sees who practiced them. To them those washings 
of the hands, those baptizings from market defile- 
ment, and of cups, pots, and vessels, were of the in- 
most kernel of religion : 

"The legal washing of the hands before eating 
was especially sacred to the Rabbinist ; not to do so 
was a crime as great as to eat the flesh of the swine." 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 205 

" 'He who neglects hand washing,' says the book 
Sohar, ' deserves to be punished here and hereafter. 5 " 
— Geikie, Life of Christ, p. 524. 

The Doctrine which Accords with All the 

Facts. 

To me it seems indisputable that in this act of 
Naaman we have the germ of that ordinance of 
Judaism which afterwards became known as Prose- 
lyte Baptism. And not only so, but it was the pre- 
vailing belief among the writers of the early Chris- 
tian Church, that in these water purifications is to 
be found the true type of that holy ordinance which 
was the specialty of John, son of Zacharias, and 
which was commanded and made obligatory upon all 
by Christ, and was practiced and enforced by His 
apostles. 

The truth is, that not dipping in, nor the pour- 
ing or sprinkling of water upon the person is of 
itself baptism, but the use thereof as a religious rite, 
whether by sprinkling, pouring, wetting, washing, or 
dipping. This is the only doctrine that ac- 
cords WITH ALL THE FACTS ; THIS IS THAT "HIGHER 
RECONCILING TRUTH" OF WHICH FREDERICK W. ROB- 
ERTSON WROTE. 

To the translators of the Hebrew Scriptures who 
under Ptolemy made the Septuagint, to the writers 



206 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

of the New Testament, to the early Church and its 
writers, all of the purifying water rites of Judaism 
were baptisms. " Kat Sia<£dpois /JaTmcr/xois 3 ' and divers 
baptis?ns, is the descriptive terminology employed by 
the writer of Hebrews (chap, ix, 10). To Justin 
Martyr the Judaic rites were the ' ' baptism of cis 
terns, " while the one Christian rite was the " baptism 
of life." 

Tertullian Decides a Question. 
"Others make the suggestion 'that the apostles 
then served the turn of baptism, when, in their little 
ship, they were sprinkled and covered with the waves 
that Peter himself also was immersed enough when he 
walked on the sea.' It is, however, as I think, one 
thing to be sprinkled or intercepted by the violence of 
the sea; another thing to be baptized in obedience to 
the discipline of religion. . . . Now, whether 
they were baptized in any manner whatever, or whether 
they continued unbathed to the end, still, to determine 
concerning the salvation of the apostles, is audacious 
enough, because on them the prerogative, even of first 
choice, and thereafter of undivided intimacy, might 
be able to confer the compendious grace of baptism, 
seeing they (I think) followed Him who was wont to 
promise salvation to every believer. 'Thy faith, 5 He 
would say, 'hath saved thee/ " — On Baptism, chap. xii. 

Note.— In the foregoing quotation, "or" is adversative; hence, 
we should read it thus: ° It is, however, as I think, one thing to be 
sprinkled— as were the disciples in the ship— or, to be intercepted by 
the violence of the sea— as was Peter when he walked toward Jesus 
—another thing to be baptized in obedience to the discipline Of 
reUgion." 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 207 

In the American Reprint of the Edinburgh Edi- 
tion of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, revised, etc., by A. 
Cleveland Coxe, D. D., is a footnote as follows: 

" Our author seems to allow that sprinkling is 
baptism, but not Christian baptism- a very curious 
passage." 

It is much more "curious" that an intelligent 
reader should misunderstand so plain a statement. 
The point made by Tertullian is, that neither sprink- 
ling nor dipping is baptism if it be accidental; that 
only is baptism — be it performed "in any manner 
whatever" — which is intentional and "in obedience 
to the discipline of religion/' 

Baptismos. 

The religious character attaching to the water 
sprinklings, pourings, washings, and dippings of 
Judaism accounts for the use of the noun baptismos 
in those texts of the New Testament where these 
rites are mentioned. (Mark vii, 4, 8; Heb. vi, 2; 
ix, 10.) This rule also applies to the nouns baptis- 
mos and baptisis, used by Josephus in that famous 
passage concerning the Baptist. (See Ant. xviii, 
v, 2.) 

In selecting baptidso as the verb hereafter to be 
used of the administration of the religious water 



208 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

rites of Judaism, the Seventy avoided the necessity 
of employing a word already marred by association 
with Greek idolatry. When at a later time New 
Testament writers brought into use the nouns bap- 
tisma and baptismos, they then had both verb and 
nouns which were entirely free from an association 
with pagan worship — words which never had a place 
in the nomenclature of the Greek cultus. 

This was an advantage, for whenever the verb 
baptize was linked to the noun baptism, either spoken 
or written, it was clear that nothing else than the 
Christian water rite of consecration to Jesus Christ 
was meant. Later on the convert to Christianity 
would learn that these words were also used of the 
cleansing processes performed in the hearts of men 
by the Divine Spirit. 



Chapter XXII. 

THE REASON FOR THE SELECTION OF 
BAPTIDSO. 

The foregoing studies have led us step by step 
to the conclusion that our Savior, in employing the 
Aramaic equivalent of baptidso to describe the rite 
of initiation into His kingdom, intended to avoid 
everything suggestive of mode, purposely discarding 
the modal words rhaino, rhantidso, cheo, and bapto, 
and in their stead selecting baptidso, using it in a 
sense sufficiently well known to readers of the Sep- 
tuagint and to the people of Palestine. 

Both parties to this discussion have recognized 
the fact that there was one thing held in common by 
the words bapto, brecho, cheo, louo, nipto, and rhan- 
tidso, which gave to them a possible candidature for 
election to the office now held by baptidso, namely, 
they were associated with transactions in and with 
water. Because of this it may be interesting to con- 
sider the reason for the rejection of non-modal 
brecho, louo, and nipto. This is found, methinks, 
14 209 



210 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

in the restricted meanings and uses of these words. 
Brecho had a decidedly limited figurative or meta- 
phorical use, and the figurative meanings of louo 
and nipto are essentially one with the primary and 
literal, namely, that of cleansing ; louo and nipto are 
used only of physical and spiritual cleansings. 

The Figttkative Use of Baptidso. 
In marked contrast to this is the wide range of 
the figurative use of /3a7m£<*>? which was applied to 
things and persons, cities and continents, the mental 
faculties and the soul, and of many things which 
exert a baneful influence, either because of their 
nature, their excess in quantity, or length of dura- 
tion. 

A Woed Descriptive of Influence. 
Baptidso does indeed cling tenaciously to a gov- 
erning idea or fact ; modalists say it is mode, in this 
work it is proved to be influence — in the classics, 
hurtful influence, such as the loss of ships, the 
drowning of animals and men, the bestializing of 
men by alcoholics, the ill-effect of drugs, the death- 
dealing work of the sword, the injury resulting from 
over-much study, labor, sensual pleasure, greed, 
cruelty, war, grief, affliction, sin, and death. In the 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 211 

Bible it is influence both benign and divine — the 
influence of God's Spirit upon the dispositions of 
men while conforming them into the image of Christ. 

Examples of Classic Figurative Usage. 

LXXIX. 

Speaking of the prudent conduct of the chief 

magistrate during a scarcity of bread in the city, 

Libanius said: 

" He did indeed exhort the body of bakers to be 
more just, but did not think it expedient to employ 
forcible measures, fearing a general desertion; whereby 
the city would immediately have been baptized ipairriiero 
as a ship when the seamen have abandoned it." — Life 
of Himself. 

LXXX. 

Josephus, when relating the mock trial and con- 
demnation of Herod's sons, said: 

" This, as a final blast, baptized iTrepdirrio-e (sunk) 
the tempest-tossed youths." — Wars of the Jews, bk. 1, 
ch. xxvii, 1. 

LXXXI. 

Heimerius said of Themistocles : 

"He was great at Salamis; for there, fighting, he 
baptized ipdirTLcre all Asia." — Selection XV, sec. 3. 

LXXXII. 

"And Cnemon, perceiving that he was wholly 
absorbed by grief, and baptized pepawrurndvop by the 



212 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

calamity, and fearing lest he may do himself some 
harm, secretly takes away the sword. " — Heliodorus, 
iEthiopics, bk. II, ch. 3. 

Only three examples belonging to this class are 
found in the Scriptures : 

LXXXIII. 

"My heart wanders, and transgression baptizes 
pa-n-rtfa me; my soul is occupied with fear." — Isaiah 
xxi, 4. 

LXXXIV. 

" Can ye be baptized pcnrTi<rdT)vai with the baptism 
that I am baptized pawrLfr/jLcu with?" — Mark x, 38. 

LXXXV. 

" I have a baptism to be baptized fiairTicrdrivai. with; 
and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." — 
Luke xii, 50. 

Baptidso Used of Benign Influence. 

lxxxvi. 
" When midnight had baptized k^r^ov the city 
with sleep, an armed band of revellers took possession 
of the dwelling of Ohariclea." — Heliodorus, iEthiopics, 
bk. IV, chap. 17. 

1 

" He shall baptize fairrl&i you with the Holy Ghost 
and fire."— Matt, iii, 11; Mk. i, 8; Lk. iii, 16. 



6 ' The same is he who baptizeth (3airTlfav with the 
Holy Ghost."— John i, 33. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 213 

3 

" Ye shall be baptized pawTurefaffee with the Holy 
Ghost not many days hence/' — Acts i, 5; xi, 16. 

4 

"Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized 
ipairTladrjfjLev into Jesus Christ, were baptized ip^riaQ^^v 
into his death." — Bom. vi, 3. 



"For by one Spirit we were all baptized ipairriad^ev 
into one body/' — 1 Cor. xii, 13. 

6 
"For as many of you as were baptized ^Scmtt&t^tc 
into Christ, did put on Christ." — Gal. iii, 27. 

Destructive and Benign Influence Contrasted. 

lxxxvii. 

"And the Io Bacchus was sung at festivals and 
sacrifices of Bacchus, baptized pepavTur pivot (drunk) 
with much wantonness." — Proclus, Chrestomathy, 
ch. xvi. 

" Towards night, however, the mob, drunk with 
success and with liquor also, grew bolder/' — Cassel's 
Popular Educator, vol. I, p. 254, The Gordon Biots. 

" It was to a people drunk with the vision of such 
outward felicity . . . that Jesus Christ came." — 
Geikie, Life of Christ, chap, vi, p. 58. 

"What, drunk with choler?" — 1 King Henry IV, 
act i, sc. 3. 



214 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 



conant's translation. 



"Loathed (Baptized) with much wanton- 
ness." 

So Milton uses the corresponding English word: 

" And the sweet odor of the returning gospel im- 
bathe his soul with the fragrancy of heaven." — Bap 
tizein, p. 72, ex. 151. 

Milton used "imbathe" of that which was restora- 
tive and gratifying to the highest and best part of 
man, while Proclus used /}a7rTt£a> of that which ex- 
erted a potent baleful influence, hence Milton's im- 
bathe is synonymous with Biblical baptidso, but an- 
tonymous to classic. In line with Milton's word is 
that used by Bishop Lightf oot : 

4 'All our cherished opportunities and all our fond- 
est aims must be brought to the sanctuary and bathed 
in the glory of his presence, that we may take them to 
us again, baptized and regenerate, purer, higher, more 
real, more abiding far, than before." — Leaders in the 
Northern Church, p. 171. 

If asked, For what reason was baptidso selected 
by the Seventy to describe the administration of the 
religious water rites of Judaism? the answer would 
be: Baptidso was selected by the Seventy foe 

THE REASON THAT IT HAD ALWAYS BEEN ASSOCIATED 
WITH TRANSACTIONS IN WATER (WITH VARIABLE 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 215 

mode) in which a maeked influence was ex- 
erted UPON PEESONS AND THINGS. 

Another question intrudes, For what reason was 
baptidso chosen by John the Baptist to affirm the 
work of the Holy Spirit? to which the answer is: 
Baptidso was chosen by John for the reason 
that in the classics it had been employed in a 
tropical sense of those things which most 
potently influenced human life. 

Perhaps this is the place to refer to a question 
found in the second chapter of this work; namely, 
For what reason was not bapto chosen by the Seventy 
and John Baptist to designate the religious water 
rites of Judaism and Christianity ? To this we may 
add, Why was not bapto chosen by John to affirm 
the work of the Holy Spirit? to which the true an- 
swer is: The act of dipping being one of limi- 
tations DOES NOT PERMIT THE FLUID ELEMENT TO 
EXERT SO GREAT AN INFLUENCE UPON THE SUBJECT, 
AND HENCE BOTH IN ITS LITERAL AND TROPICAL 

uses Bapto does not carry so full an idea of 
influence, nor describe such marked effects 
as does Baptidso. 

The Difference Illustrated. 
In the original Hebrew of Job ix, 31, is the word 
tabal, rendered in the Septuagint l(Sa\pas\ 



216 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

" If I wash myself with snow water 
And make my hands never so clean ; 
Yet thou wilt dip me in the ditch, 
And my own clothes shall abhor me." 

In the version of Aquila (see Conant's Baptizein, 
p. 83), it is rendered Kai totc iv 8ia<j>9opa /3a7rrtWs /*€, 
"even then thou wilt plunge (baptize) me in corrup- 
tion." 

On what grounds could he have rendered it thus, 
since the original act was a simple dipping into filth ? 
This is to be accounted for from the difference in 
the point of view. The Seventy viewed the dipping 
as an instantaneous or completed action, and there- 
fore made use of the aorist. Aquila, by reading into 
the sacred text an idea stronger than that conveyed 
by the original Hebrew tabal (and Greek bapto), 
and substituting in his version the stronger term 
8ia<j)0opa ("destruction, ruin, blight, death; in moral 
sense, corruption") for the weaker pVos ("dirt, 
filth, dirtiness, uncleanness ") of the Septuagint, 
found it also necessary to substitute the word /?a7rrt£a> 
which conveys the idea of longer time and greater 
influence, 

Well has it been said: 

"Baptism is performed by washing, dipping, or 
sprinkling the person in the name of the Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost, who is hereby devoted to the ever- 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 217 

blessed Trinity. I say by washing ', dipping, or sprink- 
ling, because it is not determined in Scripture in 
which of these ways it shall be done, neither by any 
express precept nor by any such example as clearly 
proves it, nor by the force or meaning of the word 
baptize." — The Eev. John Wesley, M. A., Treatise on 
Baptism, Works vol. ix, p. 1 55, 1st American Edition, 
N. Y.,M. and J. Harper, 1827. 



APPENDIX A. 
BAPTO m THE SEPTUAGINT. 

1 

" And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and having 
dipped p&favTts it in some of the blood." — Exod. xii, 22. 

2 
" And the priest shall dip /3#ct his finger into the 
blood." — Lev. iv, 6, 17; ix, 9; xiv, 16. 

3 

" Asher is blessed with children; and he shall dip 
p&if/ei his foot in oil." — Deut. xxxiii, 24. 

4 

" And when the feet of the priests that bore the 
Ark of the Covenant of the Lord were dipped ipdcpwav 
in part of the water of Jordan, then the waters that 
came down from above stopped." — Josh, iii, 15. 

5 
" And thou shalt dip p&ipca thy morsel in the 
vinegar."— Euth ii, 14. 

6 
" And he reached forth the end of the staff that 
was in his hand, and dipped Kfia^ep it into the honey- 
comb."—! Kings xiv, 27, (Eng. Ver); 1 Sam xiv, 27. 

218 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 219 

7 

i 'And he took a thick cloth, and dipped tpafev it 
in water, and put it on his face that he died." — 4 Kings 
viii, 15, (Eng. Ver. 2 Kings). 

8 
"And his body was wet ipd^rj with the dew of 
heaven." — Dan. iv, 30; v, 21. 

9 
"That thy foot may be dipped pacprj in blood." — 
Psalm lxvii, 23; (lxviii, 23). 



APPENDIX B, 

MEKGO, VIKGIL'S ^ENEID. 

2 
" Strike into the winds force, and overwhelm their 
ships ; sink sufonersas or drive them apart, and scatter 
their bodies in the sea." — Bk. I, 69. 

3 

" One is absent whom we have seen sunk suimersum 
in the midst of the sea." — Bk. I, 585. 

4 

" I confess that I have attacked the Trojan abodes 
in war, for which, if the injury of my crime is so great, 
cast me into the waves and immerse immergite me in 
the vast sea."— Bk. Ill, 605. 

5 
" Far off in the sea against the resounding shores, 
is a rock which submerged submersum sometimes is 
beaten by the swelling waves, but when the winter 
west winds hide the stars, it lies still in the tranquil sea, 
and from the wave unmoved it is raised as a plain, and 
is a resting place most grateful to the basking cormor- 
ants."— Bk. v, 125. 

8 and 9 
" Palinurus, what one of the gods has snatched 
thee from us, and plunged mersit thee beneath the 

220 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 221 

midst of the sea? Come, say! . . , But he said, 
Leader, neither the oracle of Apollo has deceived 
thee, nor has a god plunged mersit me in the sea; for 
falling headlong I drew with me the helm, by chance 
torn away by much violence, to which I clung." — Bk. 
VI, 342, 348. 

11 

" By my own fates, and the deadly crime of Lace- 
demonian Helen have mersed mersere me by these mis- 
fortunes." —Bk. VI, 512. 

12 

"Do not ask to be taught what punishment or 
what form or fortune overwhelmed mersit the men." — 
Bk. VI, 615. 

13 

" ' Go, ye goddesses of the sea,' the mother of the 
gods commands ; and immediately all the ships break 
their cables from the bank and seek the safe waters, 
with bows cleaving the water, or sunk down denier sis 
in the manner of dolphins." — Bk. IX, 119. 

14 

"Thy kind mother shall not bury thee in the 
earth, or load thy limbs in a native tomb; you shall 
be left to the savage birds, or the wave shall bear thee 
mersed mersum in the deep, and unfed fishes shall 
suck thy wounds." — Bk. X, 559. 

15 

"And Pallas whom not destitute of courage, cruel 
time has borne off and sunk mersit in bitter death." — 
Bk. XI, 28. 



222 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES. 
17 
Deucalion and Pyrrha, after the rain wrought by 
the deluge, pray thus : 

"0 Themis, . . . bring help to our mersed 
mersis affairs/' — Bk. I, 296, 380. 

19 
Of the boy, Narcissus (in love with his own im- 
age reflected in the water), it is related : 

" How often he gave useless kisses to the deceitful 
fountain ! How often he plunged mersit his arms into 
the midst of the waters, catching at the visible neck, 
nor yet catches himself in them." — Bk. Ill, 428. 

21 
" Could a son of a mistress transform the Maeonian 
sailors and immerse immergere them in the ocean, and 
give the body of the son to be torn by his mother ?" 

22 
u They turned their eyes, and they behold the 
other things sunk mersa in a morass, and only their 
own house remaining/' — Bk. VIII, 625, 696. 

23 

" And the wave sinks mergit the vessel to the bot- 
tom equally by its weight and by the shock." — Bk. 
XI, 557. 

24 

"Lo, above the midst of the billows a black arch 
of waters breaks and overwhelms his head, mersed 
mersum in its broken wave." — Bk. XI, 568. 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 223 

25 

"And thrusts her fingers in his perfidious eyes, 
and tears out the eyes from the cheeks — passion makes 
her strong — and she immerses immergit her hands 
(into the sockets) and stained with his guilty blood, 
tears out, not the eye — for not even one remains — but 
the places of the eyes." — Bk. XIII, 563, 

26 

" * Mersitque suos in cortice vultus.' And merged 
her features in the bark (of the tree). This was said 
of Myrrha, who was transformed into a tree." 

27 

" The bounteous parent broke off in front the 
hempen bonds of the Phrygian fleet, and bears the 
ships downward, and sinks mergit them beneath 
the middle of the sea." — Bk. XIV, 548= 

28 

" Tiberinus received the kingdom from them, and 
he, having been drowned demersus in the waves of a 
Tuscan river, gave his name to the river," — Bk 8 XIV, 
614. 

29 

" Whoever he was who first gorged down demersit 
flesh food into his greedy paunch." — Bk. XV, 105. 



APPENDIX C. 

BAPTIDSO MISTKANSLATED DIP. 

" Giving up the kingly power ... he settled 
the commonwealth under the auspices of the gods ; for 
he consulted the oracle at Delphi concerning his new 
government, and received this answer : 

c From royal stems thy honor Theseus springs; 

Hence, hence with fear! Thy favored bark shall ride, 
Safe, like a bladder o'er the foamy tide.' " 

With this agrees the Sibyl's prophecy, which, we 
are told, she delivered long after, concerning Athens : 

" The bladder may be dipp'd, but never drown'd. " 
— Langhorne's Plutarch's Lives, vol. I, p. 45. 

11 'A$kos paiTTlfr)' 5vmt 5<? rot ov dtfus early. A bladder thou 

mayest be Immersed (Baptized), but it is not possible 
for thee to sink." — Conant, Baptizein, p. 11, example 
24. 

A bladder can not sink of itself, but it may be 
sunk by attaching a weight thereto. The city of 
Athens might be very seriously injured (/foTrT/ft? ) ? but 
she could not be entirely ruined (Swat). Such seems 
to have been the meaning of the oracle, for when, 
contrary to the oracle, Sylla had taken Athens, some 

224 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 225 

Athenians went to Delphi to inquire of the oracle 
whether the last hour of their city was come, to which 
the priestess replied, " That which belongs to the 
bladder now has an end." 

The translation of Langhorne Brothers is weak, 
inasmuch as dipping conveys no sense of serious injury ; 
that of Conant is equivocal, because " Immerse" in 
his hands may mean either to put in and lift out of 
immediately, or " to put under water for the purpose 
of drowning, and leave the living being to perish in 
the immersing element." (See Baptizein, p. 89.) 



15 



APPENDIX D. 

ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES OF BAPTIDSO 
IN FIGUBATIVE USE. 

LXXXVIII 

" Most men therefore baptized pepavrurfjJvoi with 
ignorance, have their minds incapacitated for consola- 
tion with reference to afflictions; but those on the 
contrary, who are governed by sound reason, repel 
them all." — Isidorus of Pelusium, Inter, of Scripture, 
bk. II, ep. 76. 

LXXXIX 

"As also us, baptized pepairrKTuhovs with most 
grievous sins which we have done, our Christ, by 
being crucified upon the tree, and by water for cleans- 
ing, redeemed and made a house of prayer and ado- 
ration." — Justin Martyr, Dialogue with a Jew, 
LXXXVL 

xo 

"The second part the kings have received for 
public revenues; . . . And on account of the 
abundant supply from these, they do not swamp 
/SaTrTrj-ouo-i the common people with taxes." — Diodorus 
the Sicilian, Hist. Library, bk. I, ch. 73. 

xci 
Speaking of young Cleinias, confounded with 

226 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 227 

sophistical questions and subtilties of the professional 
disputants : 

" And I, perceiving that the youth was over- 
whelmed fSaTTTitfuevov, wishing to give him a respite,'' 
etc. — Plato, The Disputer, ch. vii. 

Consult chapter x, under Rule IV. 
XCII 

" And if thou art in affliction, fly to it for refuge; 
and if in wealth, receive thence the corrective; so as 
neither to be baptized pairTiffdrivai with poverty, nor 
puffed up with wealth." — Chrysostom, Discourse on 
Trials of Job. 

After the Word Had Been Used of the 
Christian Water Rite. 

xciii 

"The superstitious man, consulting the jugglers 
on his frightful dreams is told to, ' Call the old Expia- 
trix, and plunge P&tttutov thyself into the sea, and spend 
a day sitting on the ground/ "— Plutarch, On Super- 
stition, III. 

Note— The Expiatrix was an old woman supposed to have 
power to avert evil omens by magic lustrations.—Oonsult chap, x, 
p. 40. 

XCIY 

" Why do they pour sea- water into wine, and say 
that fishermen received an oracle, commanding to 
baptize Pairrlfav Bacchus at the sea?" — Plutarch, Phys- 
ical Questions, X. 



228 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

xcy 
Commenting on the apostle's words, Rom. vi, 3, 

he says : 

" We were baptized £pawTl<rernjxp says he in order 
that from it we might learn this : that as wool baptized 
pawTiffdkv in a dye is changed as to its color ; or rather 
(using John the Baptist as a guide when he prophesied 
of the Lord, ' He will baptize pawrlaeL you in the Holy 
Spirit and fire'). . . . Let us say this: that as 
steel baptized pairTifinevos in the fire kindled up by spirit 
(wind) becomes more easy to test whether it has in 
itself any fault, and more ready for being refined; 
. . . so it follows and is necessary, that he who is 
baptized pairrurdtpTa in fire (that is in the word of 
instruction, which convicts of the evil of sin, and 
shows the grace of justification) should hate and abhor 
unrighteousness, as it is written, and should desire to 
be cleansed through faith in the power of the blood of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. " — Basil, On Baptism, bk> I, 
ch. ii, 10. 

Note.— Here are three things which, by being baptized, have 
come under influence: (1) Man, so under divine influence that he 
"hates and abhors unrighteousness;' 1 (2) wool under the abiding in- 
fluence of color; (3) steel so under the influence of fire that it can 
be tested for "any fault. " 

Katabaptidso. 

1 

"KarapairTlfa, to drown ; passive, to be drowned." — 
Liddell and Scott's Lexicon. 

1 

44 For as a ship that has become filled with water is 
soon drowned KarapairTlfrTai and becomes deep under the 



Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 229 

waves, so also a man, when he gives himself up to 
gluttony and drunkenness, goes down the steep, and 
causes reason to be whelmed beneath the waves. " — 
Chrysostom, Discourse on Gluttony (at the end). 

2 

"Why is it that some die of fright? Because the 
physical force, fleeing too much into the depth of the 
body along with the blood, at once drowns and quenches 
KaTapawTifri ml <rp4vw<n the native and vital warmth at the 
heart, and brings on dissolution/' — Alex, of Aphro- 
disias, Medical Problems I, 16. 

" Titus.— Or get some little knife between thy teeth 
And just against thy heart make thou a hole 
That all the tears that thy poor eyes let fall 
May run into that sink, and soaking in 
Drown the lamenting fool in sea-salt tears. " 
— Titus Andronicus, act III, sc. 2. 

3 

Menander, in a letter to Glycera, tells why he 

declines King Ptolemy's invitation to visit his court 

in Egypt. 

"Is it a great and wonderful thing to see the 
beautiful Kile? Are not also the Euphrates, the 
Danube, the Thermodon, the Tigris, the Halys, the 
Khine among the great things ? If I am to see all 
the rivers, life to me will be drowned KaTapairTtaefoeTai 
not beholding Glycera." — Alciphron's Epistles, bk, 
II, epis. 3, 



230 Baptizing — Biblical and Classical. 

A lover of an earlier time is represented as say- 
ing: 

" When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drowned 
Reply not in how many fathoms deep 
They lie indrenched" 

— Troilus and Cressida, act I, sc. 1. 

" Stanley.— 'Richmond is on the seas.' 
King Richard.—' There let him sink, and be the 
seas on him/" — Richard III, act IV, sc. 4 X 1, 463. 

4 
"For wine drowns /cara/3a7rWfet the reason and the 
understanding. . . . And what ship without a 
pilot, borne by the waves as it may happen, is not 
more safe than a drunken man?" — Basil, Discourse 
XIV, sec. 7. 

5 

Apostrophizing Hysmenias, who had been cast 
into the sea by command of the pilot, to appease Nep- 
tune, Hysmene says : 

"Thou, indeed, wast borne away by the swell and 
the rush of the wave ; but my spirit thou didst drown 
/care^d7TTi6as, surging round with whole seas of wail- 
ings." — Eustathius, Hysmenias and Hysmene, Bk. 
VII. 

"What is this absorbs me quite? 
Steals my senses, shuts my sight, 
Droivns my spirit— draws my breath — 
Tell me, my soul, can this be death ?" 

— Alex. Pope, Dying Christian to His Soul. 



INDEX. 



Aaron consecrated by pouring 173, 174 

Apostles. Tertuilian on the baptism of the 206 

Archimedean Screw 43 

Aristobulus. Drowning of ,...103, 176, 177, 178 

Ashes of heifer dissolved in water 117, 119 

Authorized Version. Baptidso not translated in 189, 190 

Translators of . . . their knowledge of Greek 79, 80 

Bacchus baptized at the sea 227 

Baptidso. I. Affirmations of Modalists. 

Baptist authors on meaning of 7, 22 9 124, 145 

Biblical meaning same as classic 141, 142 

Consequences not included in meaning of word 92 

is derived from bapto ~ 7 

expresses no more than act of immersion, 92, 99, 141, 175 

Emersion not included in meaning of word 99, 100 

Ground idea of 85 

Immerse an equivalent of 99, 139 

retains classic import in Septuagint 141, 142 

is synonymous with bapto 11 

why used of Christian baptism 15 

Words used by Conant to translate 23 

II. Biblical. 

in Bible a ritual or sacramental term... 188 

not, as a rule, translated in N. T 189, 190 

not found in classic sense in N. T 188, 189 

" " " " " Septuagint 142, 149, 189 

exceptions to above 187, 212 

not used of secular transactions in Bible 149, 186 

Eeason for selection of, by translators 214 

transferred into New Testament 79, 80, 190 

used of benign influences 212 

" " the Christian water rite .188, 189 

231 



232 Index. 

Baptidso. Used of ceremonial washings of Jews, 

169, 190 footnote. 

used of heretic imitations thereof 186 

III. Classic. 
Ability to convey idea of largest influence. ...125, 210, 211 

Baptists give no reason for derivation 7 

Chief fact in figurative use 124, 125 

contrasted with akrothoraks .134 

" louo 161, 162 

Definition of 83 

Demands of, not met in Naaman's case 147, 148 

Destruction and death closely assoc. with, 92, 93, 107, 138 
does not demand recovery of sunken objects, 

83, 90, 91, 99, 100 

Drown a meaning of 8, 92, 93 

First use of b. for a religious rite 202 

Five rules governing the use of 85, 86, 88, 92, 134 

Four instances in Septuagint and Apocrypha 144, 145 

in figurative use 211, 226, 227 

in Josephus* works 92 

mistranslated dip by Conant 108-123, 224, 225 

never signifies to dip 123 

not associated with pagan worship 208 

not found as a synonym of bapto 8 

not used of the bath 160, 163 

not used when object was immediately taken out, 

102, 106, 107 

Peculiar use of by Clement of Alexandria 183 

Secular examples showing effect of Christian use, 84, 227 

True reason for derivation of 10, 94 

used of an act and its consequences... 93, 94 

" " anything sunk with violence, 

8, 18, 20, 85, 95, 103, 106 

" Christ's sufferings 187, 188 

" drowning of men and animals, 8, 20, 87, 95, 97, 103 
" intoxication and extreme drunkenness, 

93, 121, 122, 134-137 

" malign influence 212 

" objects permanently sunk 88, 143 



Index. 233 

Baptidso. Used of objects placed in water for 

largest influence 92, 97, 129, 215 

used of objects steeped 9, 106, 115, 117 

" " sword thrusts 97, 98 

" the part of an object covered with water 86 

" that which exerted a potent influence, 

125, 126, 138, 210 

" total covering with water 85 

" without reference to mode 86, 87 

Why Latin Fathers did not translate 71, 74, 80-82 

will not " in every case provide the water," 157, 159, 160 

Whiston's translation of 92 

Baptidso and bap to. Found as antonyms, never as syno- 
nyms 8 

Each word has its own peculiar domain 10 

Baptidso and immerse. Difference in figurative use 

between 138, 139 

Baptidsontes as used by Josephus and Our Lord 176-180 

Baptism a Biblical term 178, 179 

Carson and Conant on Judith's 156, 157 

Form of b. concealed when baptidso was selected .... 189 

From whence came b. by dipping 76, 77 

is the use of water in a religious rite 178, 205 

Meaning of word in modern literature 185 

Origin of Proselyte , 205 

received by tradition, esteemed by Pharisees 169, 190, 204 

Religious character of Judith's and Naaman's 198-201 

a rite of consecration : 182, 182 

as viewed by Church Fathers 183, 206, 207 

Watson on appendages to 75 

Wesley on the mode of 216, 217 

Baptize is to dip. Carson, Fuller, et al 22 

is a generic term. Merril 184 

is a vague term. Conant 189 

Meaning of b. in modern literature 185 

a ritual or sacramental term. Williams 188 

Why word was tranferred to New Testament 190 

Baptized " by," "with." 139, 140 

" from a dead body" a religious rite 204 



234 Index. 

Baptized. Horror of being b. by classic Greeks 148, 149 

Purpose for which Judith was 198, 201 

Baptizing is consecrating 181 

places of John the Baptist 193 

a religious rite 179, 181, 184, 187, 201 

in running water 191-194 

Bapto. Able to express baptizing by dipping 11 

Dale's statement concerning 12 

Definition and examples of 12-14, 218, 219 

demands recovery of the thing dipped 12 

an equivalent of Hebrew tabal 147 

Greek antonyms of 17, 18-21 

has no place in controversy on baptism. Wilkes 15 

Jewett on bapto to dye 12 

in the Septuagint 147 

rejected by the Seventy 14, 15, 24 

No suggestion of violence conveyed by 8, 36 

Why b. was not chosen to designate the religious 

rite 215 

Bathe and drown contrasted 162 

Burial. Entrance and withdrawal not a 46-48 

Bury. Faulty use of 48 

Good use of 47 

Cast into. Examples of 18, 19, 94, 97 

Christ consecrated by John the Baptist 199 

Commission. The Great 179-181 

Conant's theory not sustained 102-107 

Consequences. The idea of attaching to words 92-94 

Cramp on the use of baptidso by Our Lord 15 

Cyprian's use of baptismus and baptize 71 

Definition of words. Inaccurate 42 

Dip. Antonyms of 30, 40 

associated with momentary actions 55 

associated with surfaces, not with depths 55 

Christ did not command us to dip 16 

Dale on dip 14 

Definition and examples of 28, 29 

describes a round trip 14, 54 

Faulty uses of 43, 46, 48, 67, 68 



Index. 235 

Dip. Incorrect definitions of 41, 42 

is not an equivalent of baptidso 25 

is not a synonym of bury, immerse, sink 46-49 

is now rejected by modalists 24 

Total covering of object not required by 26 

was rarely used by Conant to translate baptidso, 23, 24 
Dipping. Characteristics of the word which describes.... 17 

Human agency in 14 

is not classic baptizing 146 

is not immersion 59 

Limitations of the act of 135 

not commanded in the law 137-170 

not a divinely ordained mode of baptism 16 

not — as a rule — fatal to life 55, 125, 135 

A presumed cleansing in 76 

" Divers baptisms " 206 

Doctrine that accords with all the facts. The 205 

Douse. The meaning of 45 

Drown. Meaning and uses of 131, 132 

Drown and bathe 162 

Drunk a meaning of baptidso 93, 122, 123, 134-136 

Duck. Meaning and use of 45, 46, 49, 112, 113 

Emerge 39, 50 

Emersion not within the meaning of baptidso 99, 100 

Exit not expressed by baptidso, mergo, and sink 39 

Fathers. Influences bearing upon Church 74-76 

Figurative uses of words 124-133 

Greeks. Concise and exact in use of language, 

8, 17, 100, 109, 135, 146, 161, 162, 164, 209, 210 

Hands. Washing of before prayer 197 

after labor 170 

Hemerobaptist movement 77 

Hide and bury 46-48 

Hooker on the misuse of words 44 

Im. The prefix " im " and the preposition 53, 54 

Imbathe 214 

Immersed in 139 

Immerse. Ability of i. to translate baptidso 25 

associated with long time intuspositions 52, 54 



236 Index. 

Immerse. Conant's plea for use of the word 56, 57 

Definition of, with examples , 52, 53 

Equivocal use of 54, 58, 101, 102 

No precedent for exclusive use of 71-73 

if substituted for baptize in English versions 57 

Immerse. Three uses of by modalists 54 

Immersion fatal to human life 55 

not a religious, but solely a secular act 59 

Influence. Baptidso expresses idea of 138, 210 

of Greek language on Latin authors 74, 78 

of repetition of act, described by baptidso, on 

Fathers 143 

Influences bearing on the early Church Fathers 74, 76 

Judith consecrated to deliver her people 199, 200 

not baptized in classic sense 200 

Laver of the Tabernacle and Temple 173 

Louo, bapto, baptidso, and the actions they signify 168 

Definitions and examples of 163-166 

demands cleansing of the whole 166 

" total covering 161 

Number of instances in Septuagint and N. T 165, 171 

unlike baptidso as to synchronous total covering 161 

Martyrdom and baptism 184 

Maimonides on the Jewish practice of dipping 167 

Meanings of words. Origin of figurative 130-133 

Merge. Meaning of 51 

Mergo. As used by Ambrose 71, 72 

Characteristics of 50, 51, 63, 64 

Definition of 60 

Examples of from Latin literature 61-63, 220, 223 

an equivalent of classic baptidso 77, 78 

meaning not changed in early centuries 58, 59, 73 

not an equivalent of Biblical baptidso 71, 82 

not used with exactness by Church Fathers 73 

Sheldon on its use by early Fathers 70, 71 

in Tertullian's " De Baptismo." 71, footnote. 

used in secular sense by Tertullian 73, 74 

Merrill on transference of baptisma into Eng. versions, 190 
on baptidso, a " generic word with religious use ".... 184 



Index. 237 

Merrill. Modifications of Jewish rites 168, 169 

Naaman's baptism. Conant on 144-147 

Four rules not met in 147-148 

his consecration to Jehovah 203, 204 

not a classic baptizing 146 

Overwhelm. Meaning of 130 

Pegrumon 2 Kings v, 14 146 

Philo on the " water of purification " 119 

Plunge. Deceptive uses of 36, 37 

holds few things in common with dip 37 

Plunge is unlike dip 32-36 

Meanings and uses of, with examples , 32-37 

permits of violence 48 

requires complemental words to express exit 39 

Prayer. Jewish places of 193 

Washing before 196-199 

Preposition " iv" used in instrumental sense 171, 172 

Rabbinical refinements 170 

Rachats, the word used to command washing 202 

Rise and sink 39 

Rites. Desire for a full 76 

Rites. Modification and elaboration of Jewish 168 

Ritualists and ritualism 77 

Robertson on opposite views 195 

Romans vi, 3, 4. Incorrect interpretation of 179 

Latin translations of 72 

Running water 191-194 

Scripture texts. 

2 Kings v, 15-18 203 

Matt, xxviii, 19, 20 179-181 

Mark vii, 3-8 169 

Luke xi, 38 190 

John xiii, 9 76 

1 Cor. i, 13, x. 2 182 

Sink. Idea of consequences attaching to 94 

Meanings and uses, with examples 37-40 

requires a complemental word to express exit 39 

is unlike dip 38 

is used of setting sun , 68 



238 Index. 

Stanley on use of baptidsontes by Josephus 176 

degraded the word baptism 176, 178 

Steep. Meaning of, with examples 9, 115, 116 

Submerge 52 

Sun. Words used of setting 68, 69, 88, 89 

Symmachus and Aquila. Baptidso in versions of 149, 216 

Synonymous terms. Jevons on lax use of 43 

Synonyms critically examined 44, 45, 46 

Tabal not used to command ceremonial cleansing 202 

as rendered by the Seventy 147 

Tears. Baptized by 183 

Tertullian decides a question 206 

Thought. " deep in thought" 133 

Throw into 97 

Tingo. In the Latin New Testament 67 

in secular Latin literature 65, 66 

A peculiar use of 67, 68 

Power of to express baptism by dipping 65-67 

Rejected as a rendering of Biblical baptidso 80, 82 

Texts from the Apocrypha. 

Ecclesiasticus xxxiv, 2 145 

Judith xii, 5-9 144, 145 

Versions of Aquila and Symmachus. Baptidso in 149, 216 

Washing before sacrifice and prayer 196-199 

by dipping not commanded 167-174 

by pouring a Jewish practice 173 

in running water commanded 191-193 

is not baptizing in classic sense 161 

of sacrifices by pouring and sprinkling 203 

Setting apart to a holy office by 201 

" Water of separation." 119 

rites of Judaism 206 

Running w. necessary in Jewish rites 191-194 

Watson on baptism 75 

Wesley on mode of baptism 216, 217 

Words. How the Greeks discriminated between 164 

Inaccurate definitions of 41, 42 

Needless qualification of certain 41 

Shakespeare's clown on falsehood in 45 



Index. 239 

GEEEK WORDS. 

dvd and icard 159 

aKpoddbpai; 134 

dTroXotfw and Xotfw 13, 165, 169, 171, 186 

diroTTvlyw 95, 96 

diropfit-rrTO) 19, 154 

pd\\u 19, 20, 21, 87 

iix(3&\\u> 17, 18, 20 

iKpdWu 17, 20, 154 

KarapaWw 17, 18 

PawTlfa, see Greek quotations I to XCIY. 

PawTlfa, with privative prefixed 110, 111 

BiaPairrifr/JLciL 113 

iTTlpCLTTTLfa 91, 211 

KaTapairrlfr 228,-230 

pdwTicrfJLa ...178, 179 

§aiTTL<TfjJ)$ 207 

(Saptu) 177 

MK<* 154, 155 

&fo, dfou 17, 19, 152 

iiriStiu) 69 

KaTadtiu), Karadtvw 17, 18,19, 21, 69, 87 ,91, 152 

els 108, 139 

iv 139,171. 172 

ivtrjfii ~ 118 

KCLTOL^airT L(TT 7}S , 93 

Karaichijfa 90, 155 

KarairopTlfr) 17, 18, 152, 154 

KaTaafitvvviii 96 

Karax^(o 173 

fiedtw 93, 122, 152, 153 

vItttcj, vlfa 164, 168, 172 

wiva 93, 122 

Tvty<a 163 

/torrw 17, 18, 19, 20, 97, 153 

T6/CCU 117, 118 



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